The Prophecy's True Course
by Maskmaroon
Summary: Dumbledore's manipulations go awry, leaving the prophecy to fulfill it's true course starting with Harry's first year at Hogwart's. Harry/multi HP/HG/NT/FD/?/?
1. Prologue

**The Prophecy's True Course**

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter characters.

AN: After reading a lot of Harry Potter fanfics, they have given me inspiration to write my own. If you haven't already noticed, I love harem stories (except anime harems as they make no sense with no plot, as well as some lemon stories with the same reason. I will never write lemons in my stories as I find them a waste of my time and they slow down the story considerably.) so it is not surprising to see this one will also be harem or multi since that word is that the Harry Potter fics seems to favor. Pairings will be Harry/Hermione/Tonks/Fleur/?/? Since those three are my favorite girls to be paired with Harry. Surprisingly there is not one fanfic that I read that has all three being paired with Harry only a combination of two out of the three and others. The two others are unknowns meaning undecided. Since this is a fanfic expect things to be different than canon…

**Prologue:**

"_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. … The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…_"

**July 30, 1980**** St Mungo's:**

"Congratulations Mr. Longbottom, your wife just gave birth to a healthy baby boy!" said the nurse who just came out of the room to inform Frank the good news.

Frank Longbottom was ecstatic; he quickly thanked the nurse and ran in to see his wife and new born son.

Seeing his wife holding his son, he rushed over and gave his wife a hug and a kiss on the cheek before saying "Thank you Alice, thank you!"

After a while of happily crying tears of joy his wife popped a question "So have you thought of a name for our son yet?"

"Yes, his name shall be Neville, Neville Longbottom! Yes! He will bring to us a new era, instead of just a new town he will give us a new world to live in!" he proudly shouted out.

XXXXX

**July 31, 1980**** exactly 24 hours later St Mungo's:**

A panicky James Potter was pacing back and forth outside of the room; it has been hours since his wife went into the room. As he walked by the door, the sound of a crying baby can be heard.

A couple of minutes later, a nurse came out and said "Congratulations Mr. Potter, your wife just gave birth to a baby boy!"

James Potter quickly thanked the nurse and went inside to see his wife and new born son.

He quickly ran toward his wife and held her towards him thanking her and at the same time placing quick kiss all over her face. He then notice a little version of himself crying in his wife's arms.

"Hahaha! I have a son! Can you imagine? I have a son! Oh Lily thank you so much!"

"You're welcome James but what is gonna be the name of our son?"

James Potter stopped laughing for a minute to think before answering "How about Harry? Harry Potter! Yes I quite like that name." As he was saying this, a sudden thought came to him "Oh Merlin! The Marauders have a legacy! Isn't that great Lily? Sirius will be ecstatic!" said an excited James.

Lily smiled at her husband while shaking her head "Well if he's the son of a Marauder then its only fitting for him to be name after his father, hmm… how about Harry James Potter?" After looking at the brightened face of her husband she then continued "I just hope the two of you won't spoil little Harry rotten and I sure as hope you don't turn our son into a gremlin…" '_Such nasty little things they are._'

XXXXX

**One month later:**

An old grandfatherly man stood outside the Potter estate and rung the doorbell. He just finished telling the Longbottoms the exact thing that he was going to tell the Potters.

A moment later the door opened to reveal a surprised James Potter, suspiciously James questioned "Ah… hello there Albus what can we do for you?"

Albus Dumbledore having a very grim face on then with a heavy sigh he said "James I have very grim news for you it involves your son…"

XXXXX

**Longbottom house:**

"Are you sure about this Frank?" asked Bartemius Crouch Head of the Magical Law Enforcement.

"I'm positive Barty, there is no other I would trust to be our secret keeper" said a serious Frank.

"Very well, I will become your secret keeper. I would rather die than to break your trust in me. He who must not be named will never know of where you will live!" said a determined Crouch.

XXXXX

**Potter Estate:**

"Peter? Why Peter Sirius?" asked a nervous James.

"I know he really isn't very brave but he is still our friend James. Remus is our friend too but he is a werewolf, with You Know Who promising equality to the werewolves I just don't trust him as I used to. And you know that I am going to be a distraction or fake secret keeper so I can't be the secret keeper…" said a sad Sirius Black, James Potter's best friend and sworn brother.

With a heavy sigh James said "Very well Sirius if you think Peter is good then we'll go with him, I just hope you are right…"

XXXXX

**Eight months later Crouch estate:**

"Look honey I am busy tomorrow, you need to bring the supplies to the Longbottoms. Here is their address, make sure you destroy this after you look at it" said Crouch as he hand a slip of parchment to his wife.

"I will dear but you really need to talk to our son…" said Mrs. Crouch taking the parchment then taking a quick peek, she then put it on the table before she was silenced by her husband.

"ENOUGH! I know he has been up to no good lately, I will not allow him to jeopardize my position in the Ministry! I have worked very hard to where I am now and will not let him destroy all of my hard work!" shouted Crouch as he stormed out the room.

"HONEY!" shouted Mrs. Crouch as she ran after her husband.

After the elder Crouchs left the room a young Barty Crouch Jr. snuck inside and picked up the slip of parchment. After taking a look at the address a wide smile spread across his face. Quickly he made a copy of the original, he then grabbed the original parchment and slipped it into his robes and put the copy back onto the table before leaving the room. Thinking about how happy he would make his new master.

XXXXX

**One month**** later:**

"It is time!" said Voldemort as he rose from his throne in the hall of the Malfoy Mansion. Over the past month he has planned out perfectly what he would do and how he would isolate the Potters making them alone ready for him to strike. The Longbottoms were not as great a threat as the Potters after all only the Potter boy was mentioned in the prophecy. Nevertheless the Longbottoms have been an irritating thorn at his side and today he could eliminate both! Yes, today would be a total victory for the Dark Lord.

"My lord surely you do not need to personally deal with the Potters, I can…" Lucius Malfoy began.

"NO! I must take care of them personally!" said an enraged Voldemort leaving a frightened Lucius backing away slowly not daring to raise his head. "As I am dealing with the Potters, the Lestranges here will be dealing with the Longbottoms…hmm yes Barty how would you like to join the Lestranges? This is your reward for bringing me the information on the Longbottoms."

Barty Crouch was happy this would be the first mission he would be doing for his new master. "I would love to my lord!"

XXXXX

**Potter Secret House:**

"Peter you traitor!" shouted an enraged James.

"Sorry James but the strongest will always win I am just choosing the side that wins…" said a smiling Peter Pettigrew. "The Dark Lord will be here soon, I suggest you give up now and maybe your deaths won't be quite as painful..." before he could finish he was struck by a beam of red light stunning him rendering him unconscious.

At that moment a dark demonic laughter entered the house. "Lily take Harry and run, I'll hold him off as long as I can!" said James running toward the front door.

"James! No Don't!" shouted a frightened Lily holding a crying Harry.

James stopped at the front door and turned his head towards his wife, smiling he said "I love you Lily, make sure Harry grows up to be a fine young man. Harry I love you…" then with great determination he ran out the door to meet Voldemort.

"JAMES!" screamed a now sobbing Lily. After a few moments Lily picked up her resolve and ran out the back door carrying a crying Harry.

XXXXX

**Longbottom Secret House:**

Boom was the sound of the front door being blasted into the living room, alerting the Longbottoms of intruders. Frank Longbottom ran into the living room to see Bellatrix Lestrange accompanied by her husband Rodolphus and his brother Rabastan along with Barty Crouch Jr.

"What…how…why?" was all that he could say at the moment.

"Longbottom you are guilty of crimes against the Dark Lord, and now you must be punished in the name of the Dark Lord" said Rodolphus.

After that has been said, several curses were sent Frank's way, but he was able to quickly react due to his Auror training, after all he was one of the best along with his wife.

He then started firing spells back towards the intruders making them scatter and jumping for cover.

XXXXX

**James:**

Voldemort laughed as he watch James fell to his knees looking up at him with loathing in his eyes. "Surrender now Potter and I might make you suffer less when I kill you."

"Never! Up yours Moldymort, I will never surrender to the likes of you!" said James.

Furious Voldemort started casting cutting curses at James arms and legs rendering them useless and making James scream out in pain in the process.

"How dare you! Insolent fool! No one dares to make a mockery out of ME!" hissed Voldemort.

James looked at the furious face of Voldemort then broke out laughing before putting on a serious face and replied. "I dare because you are nothing Moldy, my son will destroy you!" After seeing the Dark Lord face falter for a bit he continued "Yes my son will be the end of you… You will fall at the hands of the Potters! Hahaha!"

Voldemort has had enough and hearing how he will fall at the hands of a baby made him instinctively use his most favorite spell, pointing his wand towards the laughing man he shouted out "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Right before the lime green curse hit him James Potter closed his eyes with a single tear running down his face he thought '_I love you Lily… I love you Harry…_' before his life was taken away.

XXXXX

**Frank and Alice:**

Frank and Alice have managed to take down Rabastan who was blasted into the wall and stun Barty Crouch Jr. who now lay unconscious beside a couch.

The whole living room is now in shambles as the Lestranges duel with the Longbottoms continue on.

The Longbottoms are now very exhausted having to duel four Death Eaters at the same time. Which eventually lead to them each having taken a cutting curse at their wand arm.

Now at the mercy of the Lestranges the proud Aurors stood facing death in the face with no thought of surrendering. No, they would go with pride and honor until Bellatrix went into Neville's room and took the baby out in her arms while smirking.

This is the first time in their lives that they would feel true fear, it was not a fear for their lives but the fear of their young son's life and there was nothing they could do about it.

"My, my, my… little Nevy is quite the cute thing is he not? It would be quite a shame if he were to lose all of his limbs, the poor thing…" said Bellatrix before she broke out laughing with her husband joining her.

"Please we will do anything… anything just don't hurt our son" cried a sobbing Alice.

"I'm afraid it's too late now, you have defied my lord three times and he is not pleased. No, no, no only your deaths can please him."

"Bella stop playing around, we don't have the time for this" said Rodolphus.

"But darling we always have time for a little fun…" pouted Bellatrix.

Rodolphus rolled his eyes at his wife before surrendering "Fine, do what you want. I'll go check on the other two."

Bellatrix was now ecstatic, many ideas were now forming in her mind of how to have a little fun with the Longbottoms before the best idea she ever had hit her.

She slowly place Neville in front of his parents and with a smirk said "I wonder what will happen if I use the Crutiatus on a baby. Yes… I think a little experiment is in order."

Both Longbottoms were horrified after hearing this. Just as Bellatrix cast the Unforgivable Curse at the little baby both parents without thinking dived to shield their son.

Bellatrix was in heaven as she took turns using the curse on both parents wondering how long they would keep shielding their child until they could no longer stand it. The screaming was just an added bonus.

XXXXX

**Lily:**

Lily ran never once stopping while holding a young Harry to her tightly. She knew that if she stopped then she and Harry would be in danger.

Moments ago her heart felt pain, pain like none other. She wanted to scream but she wouldn't because then she would reveal herself and Harry. She knew though what has caused her such pain. James her husband has died, died protecting her and Harry.

She would not let his death be in vain, it was now her job to protect Harry. But fate prove too cruel when she was hit by piece of rock to her legs causing her to fall. Instinctively she pulled Harry towards her chest as she rolled along the ground using her body to cushion out the impact to the ground. Looking around she saw the ground blown apart, leaving a gaping hole in the ground. Over the distance she could see a figure slowly approaching her.

She watched as Voldemort walked towards her with the most evil smile she has ever seen in her life.

"Do you really think you can escape me? No one can escape me! It takes great luck for you and your husband to have defied me thrice but no more! Your luck has finally run out!" Voldemort said as he laughed into sky. "Now surrender and I'll let you live, just hand over the baby and you get to live. This is the one and only time I'll let you a mudblood live!"

"No! Not Harry you'll never get him, I'd rather die!" said Lily as she held Harry even tighter.

"Very well" said Voldemort as he raised his wand and shouted the same curse that ended the witch's husband's life. The jet of lime green shot out of the wand and went blazing across to strike its target.

As Voldemort raised his wand Lily Potter took a last look at her son, kissed him on his forehead and with tears in her eyes said in a whisper "Daddy and I love you Harry, please live a good healthy life." Before the curse hit her and ended her life.

Voldemort now looked at the crying baby in her hands and raised his wand yet again "The prophecy ends here!" as he used the curse for the third time today.

But before he knew what happened, the curse that was sent to kill the baby has rebounded upon the boy and was sent straight back at him ripping his soul from his own body. With no more body he fled and swearing that one day he will return.

The baby now marked with a lightening scar cried as he was picked up by a sobbing man with bushy hair and twice the size of an average man.

XXXXX

**Frank and Alice:**

It has now been half and hour and Bellatrix was getting exhausted from repeatedly using the Unforgivable. Frank and Alice are now screaming silently in their unconscious forms refusing to move away from the baby.

Frustrated Bellatrix kicked the parents away from the baby and raised her wand one last time to use the curse that rendered the babies parents unconscious.

With a devils smile she cast the curse upon the baby but was later found screaming by her husband on the floor. Feeling the effect of the curse that she casted being rebounded onto herself but this pain is a pain she never felt before. This pain is many times the pain when her master used the curse on her.

Just as her husband bent down towards her, a group of Aurors rushed into the house pointing their wands at them.

Roldolphus knew that there was no point in fighting as he quickly surrendered to the Aurors dropping his wand towards the ground.

Moments later the baby was picked up by his sobbing grandmother who came in along with the Aurors, holding him towards her tightly.

"Mrs. Longbottom I am sorry for what happened to your son and daughter in law… what are you going to do now?" asked Amelia Bones the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"He will live with me along with his aunts and uncles at the Longbottom estates, there he will have the best care and best training, after all he is the heir of the House of Longbottom." Mrs. Longbottom said sadly.

Then all of a sudden there was laughter, a very chilly laughter which caused the conscious people in the house to turn towards the source of the laughter; Bellatrix Lestrange.

Now Roldolphus knows his wife, sure she is some what of a sadist and she really enjoys hurting others which is a great trait considering their 'profession' but hey she was still very human, until now…

As he watched her, he could see her eyes was darting all over the room, her head twitching every once in a while with a maniacal smile on her face whispering the words "Little little Nevy, I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you…"

Yes this person right beside him is no longer the Bellatrix Lestrange he knew, she is a very different person, and she is now completely and utterly insane.

XXXXX

**Crouch estates**** some time after:**

"Barty NO! He is your son! Please forgive him! Help him!" cried Mrs. Crouch to her husband.

"I will not, he is a Death Eater and what is worse he sold out the Longbottoms to He Who Must Not Be Named! The Longbottoms trusted me and I have failed them!" shouted out Crouch as he stormed away towards the Ministry of Magic, leaving behind a sobbing wife/mother.

"I am sorry Frank… Alice. I have failed you… but I will set things right, I will deliver justice towards the person responsible. Even if he is my own son!" Crouch said quietly to himself.

XXXXX

**Potter's Secret House:**

Sirius Black arrived at the house only to find a lifeless James on the front yard where there seems to have been a very serious duel that occurred not too long ago. Slowly he began to walk towards the body of his best friend not believing what he was seeing. Crouching low he picked up the body and checked for any signs of life... there wasn't any. He then cried while holding his best friend's body.

After a while he went into the house to find it completely empty. Fearing for Lily and Harry he got back onto his bike and drove down the road. Moments later he found Hagrid sobbing while holding onto a crying Harry.

Relief spread all over him, at least Harry was alright. James son was alright. He then walked over to Hagrid and asked for the whereabouts of Lily, only to learn of her death. Sadness once again overcame him because Harry is now an orphan, immediately he asked for Harry but the half giant refused and said that Dumbledore will take care of Harry.

After a while he gave up and decided to search for the person responsible for the deaths of his best friend and his best friend's wife. All at the same time he kept saying to himself that this was all his fault. He will make Peter Pettigrew pay!

**Longbottom Estates Neville****'s room:**

A white cloaked figure snuck into the room and walked over to the crib. He watched the baby sleep while stroking his long white beard.

Pulling out his wand he pointed it towards the baby "I am sorry Mr. Longbottom but I cannot allow a second person that has the potential to destroy the Dark Lord exist…" as he said this he pondered for a moment '_Maybe I can… after all I am no murderer, yes maybe if I cast a spell that would hinder or interfere with his potential then maybe he will never be able to achieve the potential mentioned in the prophecy…_'

"Yes Mr. Longbottom I will not kill you but just hinder you, yes… it is most unjust but it is all for the greater good. After all we cannot allow another Dark Lord to rise in the future now can we? Mr. Potter won't become a Dark Lord if all my future plans go accordingly. Yes…"

With that the white cloaked figure once again pointed the wand at Neville and said "Oblivia…" but before he could finish he was interrupted by a shout coming from the hall.

"Hey! Who are you and what are you doing in Neville's room?" shouted one of Neville's uncle.

There was a bluish green spark being ejected by the cloaked figure's wand which struck the baby Neville.

Having no choice the white cloaked figure jumped out the window and ran as fast as his old legs could carry him. Once he was past the wards surrounding the estate he quickly apparated back to Hogsmeade.

After watching the figure jumped out the window Neville's uncle rushed over to check if Neville is alright. After seeing nothing wrong with the baby he immediately alerted the family and a search for the figure was executed. Although many in the family wondered how the figure manage to sneak in without setting the wards off.

Once inside his office he thought to himself '_Although the spell was incomplete it should still be effective enough. Considering the target is an infant and the wand that performed the spell is the Elder wand… yes, Mr. Longbottom is no longer a threat, now I just need to plan out Mr. Potter's destiny and there will no longer be any more Dark Lords to threaten Europe. This is all for the greater good_" said Albus Dumbledore as he smiled to himself.

AN: Wow finally done with the prologue. This fanfic is still centered on Harry. Neville is just given a larger role to play as I found him to be greatly undermined in canon and his character is just treated unfairly. Why would one of the child of the prophecy be so weak and given such a small role? Yes he isn't the 'One marked' but he was a contender at the time of his birth to the time of being marked, that counts as something in my opinion. His only shining moment was at the end of the seventh book which I loathe by the way. From fifth book and onwards I absolutely hated the pairings, so there will never be canon pairings from fifth book and onwards in my stories, sorry that's just me.


	2. Chapter 1

**The Prophecy's True Course**

AN: For this story I have shrunken Tonk's age by one year, therefore she is in her last year at Hogwarts.

**Chapter 1****:**

**10 years later King Cross Station:**

Harry Potter is an 11 year old boy who has been living in a cupboard his whole entire life. He was mistreated, abused and forced to do work with little to no recognition, he was basically a slave.

He lives with his aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon along with their son Dudley Dursley. He has never received anything note worthy from them, not a single present, or complement except for the word freak, hell he hasn't even gotten a hug.

This all changed one day when a half giant (how that is possible is a mystery that baffles the wizarding world!) named Hagrid who shows up one day and tells Harry that he is a wizard and he is to attend a school called Hogwarts where young witches and wizards learn magic!

He is told of his parents and how they died a noble death by protecting and defending him from an evil wizard called Voldemort who tried to kill him. He was told that his parents loved him so much that they died for him and not by some stupid car crash.

Hagrid then took him to a place called Diagon Alley where witches and wizards go to shop and buy things (after giving his fat, obese cousin a pig tail much to his delight).

He was shown his trust vault in a bank run by goblins called Gringotts and then went to buy his school supplies, hell he was even given a pet owl which he named Hedwig. His life couldn't be any better!

Now here he is, standing on King Cross Station looking at a piece of paper that read Platform 9 and 3/4. Now when it comes to time Harry has learned from the Dursley's that it is better to arrive early than late because then you'll have time to prepare for unexpected things.

Well looks like that is very very true, because Harry has now spent 10 minutes trying to find the damn platform but was only able to find 9 and 10. Hell he even went up to a station guard and asked very politely for the where about of platform 9 and 3/4's.

The station guard just glared at him and then made a face that looked like he was staring at a bloody idiot! After scolding Harry about playing pranks he said never to bother him again.

Harry was now panicking, and many thoughts have now begun to appear in his head. Have I been scammed? Is this some sick joke? Was the Dursley's in on this? Is this something to raise his hopes only for it to be completely shattered just so that they could get in a good laugh?

Just when Harry decided to give up and somehow return home with a trolley full of magical things and a snowy white owl, he heard it.

"Mom I'm freaking in my seventh year at Hogwarts you know. I can take care of myself!" came a girl's voice from behind Harry.

'_Hogwarts? Did she just say Hogwarts? Didn't Hagrid say that's the name of the school?_' thought Harry. He decided to listen closely and see if he can find out more.

"Yes dear but I have a bad feeling for this year. Something bad might happen…" said another female voice.

"I didn't know you were a seer mom? Don't worry nothing bad is going to happen…hell I wish something would happen. After six years in Hogwarts it'll eventually become boring once you get used to the changing stairs and ghosts floating around. Now come on lets hurry towards Platform 9 and 3/4's, I want to find an empty compartment all to myself. I'm sick and tired of people staring at me like I'm a freak."

Now Harry has two choices: 1 he misses this chance to go to Hogwart's and spends another year with the Dursley's and suffer. Or 2 he turns around and asks the people behind him and might have a chance of learning real magic which can be kick ass... not much of a choice is there?

And so, Harry pulled out every ounce of courage he has, then turned around and walked right up to the family.

Harry noticed that the girl who was speaking earlier has dark twinkling eyes, a heart shaped face with short spiky hair the color of purple and bubblegum pink. She was quite attractive, well…attractive to an eleven year old boy that is. Harry also noticed that she was also pushing a trolley as well.

Next to her was an attractive woman who has a sense of nobility to her. The way she presents herself with such grace that she would most likely make aunt Petunia squirm in jealousy.

"Excuse me" Harry said politely.

"Why wotcher we have here, what can we do for ya squirt?" The pink hair girl said with curiosity.

"Yes how may we help you?" added her mother.

Harry looked down nervously and then taking a deep breath asked "Do you know where Platform 9 and 3/4's are?"

Both women's eyes widened in surprise before the elder woman said "Are you going to Hogwarts as well my dear?"

Harry nodded "Yes but I don't know where the platform is, I've been searching for it for a while…"

"Where are your parent's child?"

"I'm…I'm an orphan" Harry said dejectedly.

Both women frowned and the elder quickly said "I'm sorry, I didn't know… What about your relatives shouldn't they be here?"

"It's alright…No they are muggles and they don't really want to be here not that they can help anyways…" Harry said with venom.

The women could clearly see that Harry was not on good terms with his relatives. "Well then would you like us to show you?"

Harry nodded with a smile.

Both woman smiled and then walked towards Platforms 9 and 10 with Harry following closely behind.

Once they stopped at a barrier between the two platforms, Harry looked up curiously at the two women. Once they have registered the look the young boy was giving them, they both smiled and the older women said while pointing towards the barrier "The platform is just beyond that barrier, what you must do is to run straight at the barrier without stopping."

Harry looked at the women with a shocked expression. Seeing this, the older women turned towards her daughter and said "Here, Nymphadora will show you."

Nymphadora looked at her mother with an annoyed expression and said "Mum! How many times have I told you not to call me that!" before nodding and rushed towards the barrier with her trolley. Just as she reached the barrier Harry flinched expecting a loud crash, but it never came. Surprised he then looked around seeing if he could find out where the young women went.

The older women smiled at the young boy before saying "She went through the barrier, why don't you give it a try?"

Nervously Harry nodded, pulled out all of his courage and took a run at the barrier while pushing his trolley in front of him. Harry closed his eyes and braced for the impact but was once again surprised that it never came.

XXXXX

**Platform 9 and 3/4's:**

Harry slowly opened his eyes and what he saw astounded him, there it was a train pumping out smoke waiting for departure. As Harry looked up he saw a sign that read "Platform 9 and 3/4". Looking around some more he saw many people ranging from young children to young adults talking to their families while other boarding the train.

Harry quickly looked around to see if he could find the young woman. No sooner had he began he saw the young woman walking up to him and said "Wotcher there," while waving her hands.

The young women laughed and said "It's a lot to take in isn't there, but this is nothing compared to Hogwarts. I can guarantee that."

At that moment, the elder woman from earlier appeared and approached them "I see you made it just fine dear," she said to Harry with a smile.

Harry smiled back and with a bow said "Thank you, thank you for everything."

"No need, but I can see you are a gentleman, they are quite rare nowadays."

Harry blushed at the compliment and smiled fondly at the elder woman, no other woman has ever treated him kindly before. The Dursleys made sure of that, neighbours often viewed him as a troublemaker… hell with the rumours that the Dursleys spread, he was no different than an insane convict. Harry's days in muggle school was no different, the teachers were warned ahead of time that he is a juvenile delinquent not right in the head and you'd think based on his looks alone that that can't be true, he was a living version of the punching bag for peeks sake!

XXXXX

**Kings Cross Station:**

A family of red heads approached the barrier of Platforms 9 and 3/4's. They were talking quite normally until the matriarch asked aloud "Now, what's the platform number?" while looking frantically around.

"Nine and three quarters!" piped a small read headed girl.

The mother of the group whispered a "Thank you dear…" while still looking frantically around. A moment later she asked again this time much more loudly "What's the platform number again?"

"Platform nine and three quarters!" shouted out the small girl.

The mother continuing looking around but to no avail frowned and decided to ask yet again "What's the platform number again?"

The young girl now very confused screeched out "NINE AND THREE QUARTERS!" making her mother and brothers jump and clasped their hands over their ears.

"I don't have the time for this!" said the eldest boy as he took a run at the barrier and pretty soon vanished into thin air.

Two identical twins looked at each other, then at their sister before saying "Mother are you alright?"

"Yes dear why?" asked a now frustrated mother.

"You basically asked the same question…"

"Three times, after Ginny who has already…"

"Told you the number. You're scaring her…"

"And freaking us out, even though…"

"You should already know the number…"

"By now, since you went to the school…"

"And have 5 sons that have attended said school…"

"With a sixth going this year…"

XXXXX

**Platform 9 and 3/4:**

Harry watched as the mother and daughter chatted and he found the sight amusing. Once in a while they would ask him to join in, making him very happy. But all great things will eventually come to an end as most of the students have already said their goodbyes and boarded the train.

"Looks like its time for you guys to go…" said a sad looking mother.

"Thank you again Mrs.?"

"Tonks, My name is Andromeda Tonks and this is my daughter Nymphadora Tonks…" said Mrs. Tonks before she was interrupted by her daughter.

"You can just call me Tonks" said a smiling Tonks.

Harry smiled then with a bow said "It was very nice to meet you Mrs. Tonks, my name is Harry, Harry Potter."

Both women was shocked, here standing in front of them is Harry Potter the Boy Who Lived, with wide eyes they stood there gaping at him but was soon snapped out of their state by a warning whistle from the train.

"It is very nice to meet you too Harry, I hope you and Nymphadora can be good friends," said a smiling Mrs. Tonks.

"Mum! The name!" shouted out Tonks before she rolled her eyes and turned to Harry "Come on Harry, if we're fast enough we can grab an empty compartment," said Tonks as she strolled away followed by a frantic Harry while waving back at Mrs. Tonks.

Mrs. Tonks watched as the two disappeared into the train. With a trouble thought she went back through the barrier thinking '_Why doesn't Harry know how to get to Platforms 9 and 3/4? Surely someone should have told him… did they forget? Also why is Harry so scrawny for his age? The clothes that he is wearing are several times his size… Does Harry know of Sirius?_' she walked out of Kings Cross while thinking of the mysterious Harry Potter.

XXXXX

**Kings Cross Station:**

"Yes well… never mind. Fred, George you should go now, I still have a few things to talk to Ron about," said a nervous looking Mrs. Weasleys.

Fred and George looked at their mother curiously before nodding then dashed towards the barrier.

Once they were gone the youngest son asked his mother "Mom do I have to do this? This seems so troublesome…"

"Yes Ron, Dumbledore asked specifically for you to do this. Besides think of it as a job, you are getting paid, think of all the Christmas presents that you can buy this year."

Ron brightened up at the word presents and eagerly nodded at his mother.

Ginny looked from Ron to her mother and curiously asked "Do what mum?"

Her mother looked down and patted her head before gently speaking "Nothing that concerns you dear."

And so with that done all three rushed towards the barrier and vanished.

XXXXX

**Hogwarts Express:**

Harry looked around as he followed Tonks to the back of the train, not long did he notice that something was strange so he decided to ask "Er…Tonks? There seems to be quite a lot of empty compartments left, so why do we need to be in such a hurry?"

Tonks took a quick peek at Harry's expression and pretty soon broke out laughing "Because Harry, I want to get away from mother, she is just so naggy at times. Not to mention that the British magical population dwindled about 11 years ago due to a very horrifying war… that's why there aren't as many students as they used to, though there is still quite a lot."

Harry sighed then shook his head as he and Tonks reached the furthest compartment. Once inside they put their belongings away and took a seat.

Harry then nervously said "Hey Tonks? You don't have to sit with me, I'll be fine. You should go join your friends…"

Tonks then playfully looked hurt and said "What? Harry you don't want to be with me? Am I ugly? Is that why you're trying to get rid of me?"

Shocked Harry quickly shook his head and defensively said "NO! That's not what I meant. I…I want to sit with you and be with you, you're… you're very beautiful. I just thought that you'd want to be with your friends is all. I mean you probably want to hang around with people your age…"

Tonks chuckled at the flustered Harry before she sadly looked down at the table and said "I don't have any friends Harry, well not true friends..." Tonks looked at Harry's confused looked before continuing "Harry there is something that you need to know, I am a Metamorphmagus…" after that she looked away.

A moment later she looked back and now seeing an even more confused Harry she began again "A Metamorphmagus is a extremely rare witch or wizard that has the ability to change his or her ability at will…" with that she changed her appearance into that of a duck before changing her appearance to look like Harry, after that she reverted back to her previous appearance.

Harry didn't know what to think, having such an ability is quite neat in his opinion, so why does having this ability prevent Tonks from making true friends. "That is quite amazing but why does it prevent you from having any friends?"

Tonks was quite surprised; Harry didn't seem bothered by her morphing abilities at all? And that's after she morphed into him! That has never happened before! After studying Harry some more to check for any signs of deception, she couldn't find any so she explained "During my first year at Hogwarts I did managed to make friends but as soon as I told them about my abilities… everything changed. There were some that started asking for me to perform my ability which I did, it made everyone laugh so I was happy. Then I found out that they were just using me as entertainment when they were bored, I was basically a clown to them! Then there are those that are afraid of me, afraid of my power. They thought that if they made me angry I will use my powers and transform into them to do many bad things with their face thus framing them for crimes. These people were staying as far away as possible from me… Eventually there were rumours about people who were my enemies being punished for things they didn't do and everyone assumed it was me. Even though I didn't, I even swore an oath and they didn't believe me… They all are bloody hypocrites, what happened to loyalty? Most of them are from my house!" Anger and tears appeared at the same time as all the emotions that she hid with her easy going attitude exploded all at once.

Seeing this Harry reached over and patted her softly on the shoulders, at times rubbing them, trying to soothe her. After a while when she seemed to have calmed down Harry began "Well then they are a bunch of bloody idiots to not know of a good person when they see one. If they don't value your friendship then it's their loss. Don't worry Tonks I'll be your friend… that's if you want to be my friend…" Harry said at first with venom then gradually becoming a sad voice.

Tonks couldn't be even happier that Harry wants to be her friend but then she detected sadness so she said "Of course Harry! Why wouldn't I be your friend?"

Harry took a deep sigh and began telling her about his life. How his relatives lied to him about the death of his parents. How they treated him as a slave and made him do everything from house cleaning to cooking to fetching anything they wanted and if he refused or was slow in his work they would starve him, which was basically all the time, you can just tell by how small he is for his age.

Almost everyday they would slander him, calling him a freak and that he shouldn't have been born. They would insult him as well as insult his parents. They made sure that he knew he was useless and a piece of garbage that they 'kindly' picked up from outside their doorstep.

Most of the time they would threaten him with violence, sometimes even beat him. After beating him they would tell the neighbors that Harry was a violent kid who picks fights with people all the time as an excuse to hide Harry's bruises. The teachers in his school actually believed these stories and so when they saw the bruises they immediately assumed that he was a delinquent.

He never made any friends as most of them believed the stories, and when ones who don't believe the stories, his cousin and his friends made sure to scare them away by threatening them with violence. They even made an example out of it by beating Harry at school! Yes Harry has never once had a single friend from his entire life with the Dursleys.

That's why he will treasure all of his friends that he'll hopefully make at this new magical school. With Tonks being the first one that he'll treasure for the rest of his life.

To say that Tonks was surprised is an understatement, she was shocked and outrage! How could anyone do something like that to a child? Who are these muggle abominations? They should be locked up! Tonks will be sending a letter to her parents tonight.

After that both of their fears of being abandoned by one another soon faded out of existence. They both began talking with each other, trying to get to know one another when there was a knock on the compartment door and a moment later it opened.

XXXXX

**A compartment near the front of the train:**

"Ron where are you going?" asked one of the twins.

"I need to do a certain job." Ron replied.

"So why are you bringing your stuff with you, when you're just going to the toilet?" asked the other twin.

"I'm not going to the toilet!" yelled Ron as he exited the compartment. The twins looked at each and shrugged, before going back to chat with their best friend.

'_Now where is my target?_' thought Ron as he slowly made his way through the train checking every compartment and seat.

XXXXX

**Harry and Tonks compartment:**

A young girl with bushy brown hair walked in with a young boy with a round face who looks like he doesn't have much confidence and was nervously looking at the two of them. "Have anyone of you seen a toad? Neville here has lost his." The girl said with a rather bossy voice.

Both Harry and Tonks shook their heads no. Panicking Neville said "Well if you've seen it please let us know, we're in the compartment right next to this one."

As they were leaving Tonks had an idea "You said you're in the compartment next to ours?" she asked and when they both nodded she pulled out her wand.

The young girl then looked up at Tonks with an excited looked and said "Oh, are you going to do magic? Let's see it then."

Tonks looked questionably at her, seeing this she quickly said "Oh sorry, you see I'm what you call a muggle born. So I have only seen very few magic when the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall came and told my parents and I that I was a witch and that magic was real…" as she broke of feeling slightly embarrassed.

Tonks then smiled and nodded before flicking her wand and said the incantation "Accio toad!"

The toad that was hiding from his master in the empty compartment over all of a sudden rose through the air and came shooting into the compartment and into Tonks's hands.

Seeing his Toad Neville let out a sigh of relief and quickly said "Thank you! Thank you very much!" as he took the Toad from Tonks and deposited the Toad back into his pocket.

Tonks nodded with a smile and said "No problem just a summoning charm is all."

"A summoning charm, wow so how does it work? Can it summoning anything or only things that are nearby?" said the young girl as she excitedly asked away.

Seeing this Harry looked at Tonks for confirmation, with Tonks nodding Harry said "Why don't you guys come and join us? You see although I am not muggle born, I was raised by muggles and just a month ago did I find out that I was a wizard. Tonks here can tell us more about magic, the magical world as well as our school."

The young girl was practically jumping with glee. Ever since she was told that she was a witch and that magic exists, she has been reading anything that she could find that has something to do with magic, there was the schools pamphlet that tells her the basics like school rules and regulations, a brief history on the school itself, the classes that it provides and the schools staff.

Then when Professor McGonagall took her and her parents to Diagon Alley, it was like nothing she has ever seen before, she almost fainted when they visited Flourish and Blotts and it took Professor McGonagall half an hour to convince her that she only needed the first year books. Now there is someone who is willing to tell her more? Before anyone can stop her, she dashed back towards her compartment and grabbed her things, within seconds she was back and putting her things in her new compartment.

Neville on the other hand was slightly nervous but upon seeing their kind faces and smiles he too went and grabbed his things, not long after he was back with his new friends or at least what he hoped to be his new friends.

Seeing his new companions finally seated Harry began "Before we begin how about we introduce ourselves first? My name is Harry Potter and this is my friend Nymphadora Tonks, you can just call her Tonks." Harry quickly added at the end.

Hermione was quite curious when Harry introduced himself as he wasn't what the books that she read at Flourish and Blotts told her to be. Neville on the other hand was wide eyed, having the exact same expression that Tonks and her mother had on before.

He was quickly snapped out of his demeanor when the young girl started to introduce herself "Hello it's very nice to meat you, my name is Hermione Granger and as you already know I am muggle born. I like to read books and study a lot. Magic interests me greatly and I hope to do well in the new magical school. I hope we can be friends."

Neville's nervousness returned to full effect when everyone turned their attention towards him. "My…my names Neville Longbottom, I don't really have any interests except plants. I'm not really good at anything because most of the time I would usually forget things right away. I need a remembrall to remind me things. Due to my forgetfulness I can't really perform magic that well. There was a time that my relatives including my grandmother thought that I was a squib…"

Tonks was quite surprised when she heard that Neville's relatives thought that he might be a squib. Harry and Hermione on the other hand had no clue what a squib was so they both asked at the same time "What's a squib?"

Tonks seeing Neville feeling uncomfortable decided to answer the question for him "A squib is a non-magical person who is born to at least one magical parent. But from what I know both Neville's parents are quite famous as they are very skilled Aurors." Tonks added making Neville smile a little but soon went on to explain what Aurors are when she saw Harry and Hermiones expressions "Aurors are elite members of a unit in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic."

Hermione nodded and said "So like the policemen of the muggle world."

Tonks nodded and Harry said "That's great Neville! I bet you're very proud of them…" but he was quickly cut off by an elbow to the ribs by Tonks who was shaking her head.

Neville not wanting to talk about his parents decided to change the topic "So er Harry you were raised by muggles?"

Harry sensing Neville not wanting to go into the topics of his parents started once again talking about his life with the Dursleys. To his delight both Hermione and Neville was both appalled at what the Dursleys did to him.

And so the group continued to chat and getting to know one another as well as learning more about the magical world and what to expect from Hogwarts. Tonks also went on about the four houses and the sorting as that effects Harry, Hermione and Neville.

Pretty soon the food trolley came and they each bought some snacks, many of which intrigued Harry and Hermione greatly. As they were enjoying their snacks the compartment door slid open once again, this time a red haired boy came in carrying what they assume to be his luggage.

He looked around at them and once his eyes fell upon Harry he said "Mind if I join you guys? All the compartments are full…" Ron said hoping they would buy it.

They didn't. Tonks especially was defensive as she can tell if a person was lying and she has had enough with liars all her life. As Tonks's eyes narrowed at the red head, Harry sensing Tonks hostility quickly said "Sorry but we're quite as packed as it is…"

Ron either being oblivious or completely tactless interrupted Harry "Nonsense you can fit one more."

This time Hermione spoke up with a bit of venom "I believe Harry just said no, beside the compartment next to ours is quite empty the last time I checked."

Ron not knowing what to do next was now nervously backing away as his plan just went right out the window. Now Ron might not always be the smartest bloke but after spending his entire life with a pair of brothers that would do many uncomfortable things to you if you annoyed them enough was now beginning to sense a little bit of hostility, so with a sigh he left the compartment and decided to go back to said brother's compartment.

"What was that about? And who was that boy?" asked Hermione.

"Don't know but that boy is most likely a Weasley, they are well known for the entire family having red hair and freckles."

"He's most likely here for Harry…" Neville said softly.

Everyone turned their attention towards Neville. "Why do you say that Neville?" asked a surprised Tonks.

Neville looked up nervously before answering "Because when he came into the room he looked at all of us but his eyes ended up on Harry for a moment. It was then that he asked if he could join us."

"That's very observant of you Neville." Hermione said enthusiastically.

"Yes nice catch Neville," Tonks said before turning to Harry "Harry you need to be careful around him. He just blatantly lied to us and tried to force his way into our group."

"Yeah I will Tonks, thanks." Harry said happily.

Pretty soon the group was told to get changed into school robes as they are now approaching the school. Harry and Neville went out of the room with their school robes and into the next compartment. Leaving Tonks and Hermione inside, Tonks started changing as Hermione looked out the window trying to see if she could see the castle. Hermione didn't need to change as she was already in her school robes when she came in here with Neville.

Once Harry and Neville entered the next compartment, they found that it was empty; the red haired boy was no where in sight. This further increased Harry and Neville's suspicions. Once they were changed they went back towards their compartment knocking first to see if it was okay for them to go in.

Pretty soon the four left the train and onto the platform. Tonks waved goodbye as she went off into another direction while the three of them followed a voice that announced that first years should follow him. Immediately Harry recognized the voice to be Hagrid's. Soon they had to clamber onto small boats and made their way across the lake towards the castle.

The three of them were speechless as the castle soon came into view from behind a mountain. After they got off the boat Hagrid then guided them towards the front doors of the castle. A commotion in the back of the first year group, made the three of them stop to look and see what is wrong. A blond haired boy who Harry have met earlier at Diagon Alley is accompanied by two boys who strangely made Harry think of bulldogs and Dudley in comparison look like a Chihuahua approached the red headed boy from earlier.

"Well, well, well what do we have here another Weasley? Just how many are there?" the blond boy said to his two bodyguards who broke out laughing.

"Oh? And who in the bloody hell are you?" said the red headed boy.

"The name's Draco, Draco Malfoy." Malfoy proudly said only to get a snort from the boy in return.

"Is my name funny to you?" asked Malfoy venomously causing the red head to back away. Seeing this Malfoy laughed some more before moving through the crowds followed briefly by his two lapdogs.

"What just happened?" questioned Hermione.

"The red head as you already know is a Weasley and the blond haired boy is a Malfoy. The two families are enemies to each other. The Malfoy's are extremely rich whereas the Weasley's are extremely poor. The Weasley's are known muggle lovers, with the patriarch of the family having an unhealthy obsession with muggles and their technology. The Malfoy's on the other hand are known muggle haters as well as muggle-born haters. They have a word for muggle-borns 'mudblood' as they call it…" said Neville with loathing before continuing "it's a very degrading term for the muggle-borns, the word itself is disgusting, and it means dirty blood. Of course there are very few who even think of something like pureblood or halfbloods anymore and only foolish people like the Malfoy's continue to view muggle-borns like that." Neville said to Hermione with a smile which she returned.

Malfoy overhearing this came over to the three of them "And I was wondering who was running their mouths off, it turns out to be Longbottom. I hear Dad says that you're practically a squib." Malfoy said with a sneer before laughing out, making Neville cringe.

"Oh stuff it Malfoy!" Hermione seethed out.

"Oh? Look boys, there's another mudblood, you people just seem to keep coming like the insects that you are." Malfoy said with pride not paying attention to the gasps in the crowd.

"Enough Malfoy, seems like your not very smart to be saying something like this. Especially right in front of a crowd of new students who you've probably just insulted." Harry said as he looked around the crowd before sizing Malfoy up.

"Ah! So you're Harry Potter. Careful now Potter you should know not to be making friends with the wrong sort…" Malfoy said as he looked at Neville then at Hermione before continuing "I can help you there," as he stuck out his hand.

Harry first looked at the hand then at Malfoy before smiling and said "Thanks I'll be taking your advice to heart as I see you're definitely not friend material."

Malfoy lowered his hand while shaking his head "Tsk, tsk, tsk, your loss Potter. You see my father is one of this schools Board of Governors, that's how I know all about you and your little friends here…" Malfoy laughed as he made his way through the crowd followed by his two lackeys.

"Now why have you all just stoppe'? Come along now. We don't have much time." Hagrid said apparently oblivious to what just occurred. Soon they met up with a very old looking witch, the exact witch that informed Hermione of her status.

After that Hagrid bid them farewell and they followed Professor McGonagall through the Entrance hall and into the Great Hall. As they walked she began telling them of the sorting and how important it is as the sorting will place each student to a certain house. Harry and his friends already knew of this thanks to Tonks informing them earlier.

Once they arrived they saw the school staff sitting along a table in the front of the hall with four tables lined up across the hall filled with students. Harry then noticed Tonks waving at them, he then told the other two and they all smiled and waved back.

Pretty soon the hall became dead silence as a wizard's hat on top of a chair began singing, soon after it had stopped the hall broke into applause and the sorting began.

One by one the line started to thin out until it was Hermione's turn, the hat seemed to be taking longer with her though but she soon became a Gryffindor.

It then took another few students before it was Neville's turn. The hat also took longer then normal when compared to other students for Neville, but he too became a Gryffindor.

After Neville, was Malfoy who was immediately placed into Slytherin just as the hat touched him.

Another bunch of students later and Harry's name was called out. The whole hall burst into whispers as Harry took the seat and placed the hat on top of his head. The hat began talking to Harry inside of his mind and went through each house and how Harry had a bit of each house's traits. A disregard for the rules and cunning would place him into Slytherin but Harry flat out denied Slytherin. So the house went to Ravenclaw, telling Harry that he does have the potential if he is willing to work hard. Then came Hufflepuff and the hat can see that Harry would indeed become a very loyal friend to anyone who he views as a friend. Last was Gryffindor and the hat can indeed see courage like none other if his friends were in danger. When the Hat asked for his opinion Harry spoke up "It really doesn't matter where I go, just as long as its not Slytherin. But I would prefer you put me with my friends. So it's either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor please." After a while the hat decided to place Harry into Gryffindor as the hat can see that that is where fate has chosen for him to be.

Harry then took off the hat giving it a whispered "Thank you," and walked towards the Gryffindor table that has two twin red heads chanting out "We've got Potter!" Harry then took a seat beside Hermione and Neville. Soon the red headed boy whom Harry finally knew his name as Ronald Weasley approached the hat. Looking over to the Hufflepuff table Harry can see Tonks's depressed expression, feeling a little sad due to not being with Tonks Harry did not pay attention when the hat yelled out for Ron to become a Gryffindor.

Ron originally planning to sit beside Harry saw that the seats beside him was already taken so he went and sat besides two other new Gryffindors by the name of Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.

After when everyone has been sorted the tables soon filled with food and Harry began eating like there was no tomorrow. Harry then met a nearly headless ghost called Nearly Headless Nick and learned of some information from Ron's brother Percy Weasley whom is a school prefect. He learned that the man sitting up in the staff's table with greasy black hair is called Severus Snape who greatly plays favoritism to the Slytherins and is much hated by the other three houses.

After the banquet is over the Headmaster an elderly old man with a long white beard stood up and introduced himself as Albus Dumbledore. He then began telling students to stay away from certain places including The Forbidden Forest and The Third Floor Corridor. After that they sang the schools anthem and everyone began to walk towards their houses.

Harry saw Tonks getting up and quickly walked over towards her yelling out her name "Tonks!"

Tonks heard her name and turned around to see Harry standing in front of her, surprised she said "Hey Harry congratulations on becoming a Gryffindor, so what do you need?"

Harry looked sad and said "Thanks Tonks, how about we meet up this weekend and then we could compare each others schedules? Then we can plan out when to hang out?" Harry said pleadingly.

Tonks hearing Harry's words brightened up and said "Sure Harry that would be great!"

Harry nodded and said "Great! See you this weekend then!" as he walked back towards Hermione and Neville who were waiting for him.

Tonks though still a little bit sad of not being in the same house as Harry felt much better when Harry still thought of hanging out with her. As she walked towards her dorm she happily thought of what they would do this weekend, she just couldn't wait for the week to end.

During their trek up the Gryffindor tower they ran into a poltergeist called Peeves who loves causing all sorts of mayhem. Once inside the common room the boys split with the girls and went to bed.

XXXXX

**Headmaster's Office:**

Albus Dumbledore is ecstatic, he is basically jumping for joy when he first laid his eyes on the young Potter boy. The Dursleys did a magnificent job with the boy, he was small for his age and his heart is very weak and vulnerable. The boys heart is also in pain due to a lack of love and is dying to seek love, love from a friend and love from a family.

So what would Albus do? Why the right thing of course, he would provide a family to the young boy, a family that will take him in. A family that will accept him for who he is. And whats a family without a caring loving mother? Yes he would provide him a mother figure, a mother that would dote on him more than her own children. A mother that would place more food on his plate than on her own children. Yes she would be the Petunia that would dote on him instead of Dudley. Then there is the father, a father figure that accepts and embraces Harry's background being raised as a muggle. Yes a family that he Albus could easily control.

What else does Harry wants and desperately needs? Why a friend of course, the Dursleys made sure he wouldn't have a friend. So as a kind grandfatherly figure as himself he would provide a friend for him, a friend that would introduce him to the world of magic. A friend to hang out with, a friend that can use his 'talents' to influence a young Harry into adopting his own interests. Yes the friend is lazy so Harry would be lazy, the friend chooses the easy way out and so would Harry. With a friend like that Harry won't have the incentive to work hard. And that suits Albus just fine... Albus doesn't need a warrior, he needs a lamb, a sacrificial lamb that would fulfill a certain Prophecy. After all the Prophecy only says that one must die at the hands of the other, so once the Dark Lord kills the young Potter the Prophecy will be fulfilled. Leaving Voldemort open and no longer protected by the Prophecy for him Albus to destroy, after all he did defeat Grindelwald, how hard can Voldemort be? Yes Harry destiny would be to find Voldemort's weakness making him mortal, not to Destroy the Dark Lord himself.

Yes with the Weasleys being the perfect family, Harry would finally be able to have his dream come true, and how would Harry repay him, why by dying for him of course.

As for Mr. Longbottom it seems the unfinished spell did more than he thought it would, the boy could hardly perform any magic at all! The whole entire family thought the boy was a squib just because he has very bad memories.

Laughing happily, Dumbledore finally seeing his plans come to fruition sat back down onto his chair while popping a lemon drop into his smiling mouth.

XXXXX

**Harry:**

And so Harry's week went by with a few minor setbacks. On the first day Ron caught him off guard and trying to get Harry to hang out with him much to Harry's annoyance as this caused them both to become lost and ran into trouble with Filch the caretaker who was hated by all students including the Slytherins, they eventually got away thanks to Professor Quirrell the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. Then the two arrived late for class causing Harry trouble with both Professor Flitwick the Charms Professor and Hermione.

On Wednesdays there was Astronomy class and Thursday was Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall who is a very strict Professor. Pretty soon Friday rolled on by and Harry received a letter from Hagrid with an invitation to afternoon tea on Saturday which he replied with a giant YES.

Potions class was another entire level of hell as Snape the Potions Professor absolutely hated Harry for no apparent reason. Right off the bat Snape asked Harry questions that he didn't know the answer to since he didn't read those chapters yet. Hermione apparently did but he chose to ignore her. Yep Snape in Harry's opinion is a total jackass. From that day on he vowed never to be caught off guard anymore so he asked for Hermione's help in his classes with double the time spent on potions.

Soon Saturday came; Harry and company went down for breakfast. Once done they met up with Tonks to discuss their schedules. "So that's it we'll hang on all the free days and the weekends." Harry said as they finished their plans for the year. After that the four of them made their way to Hagrid's hut. Harry introduced them to each other and enjoyed an afternoon drinking tea and listening to Hagrid's tales of monster beasts and how they are misunderstood. Then tea party ended when Harry noticed a cutting from the Daily Prophet that describes a Break-in to Gringotts bank. Which prompted a discussed on the matter but with Hagrid dodging questions and feeling uncomfortable, then with an excuse he asked for them to leave.

XXXXX

**Flying lessons:**

Finally it came to flying lessons which Harry greatly anticipated after hearing Hagrid talk about how great a flyer his father was. On the other hand Neville was a nervous wreck because he had never been on a broomstick before due to his grandmother's over protectiveness. She kept saying things like how a suspicious man in white robes would kidnap Neville if he rode on a broomstick and flew too far. Hermione wasn't quite sure if she could ride a broomstick as its one of those things that you can't learn from a book but through experience.

During practice Neville lost control of his broomstick and fell causing a broken wrist and he was escorted to the Hospital Wing for attention. While everyone was distracted Malfoy found Neville's remembrall that had fallen out of his robes. Malfoy then proceeded to toss around the remembrall with his two lackeys before Harry saw what was going on "Hey give that back Malfoy!"

Malfoy looked at Harry then at the remembrall before having a wide smirk spread across his face "You want this Potter, then catch it!" he said as he chucked the remembrall towards a tower.

Immediately Harry with his broom dashed towards the object successfully catching it and pulling out of a dangerous situation at the nick of time. Afterwards the other students cheered but in an instant they were silence by a "HARRY POTTER!" shouted by Professor McGonagall. Some students tried to defend Harry but they were then silenced by McGonagall.

With a deep sigh Harry looked at Hermione who seemed worried both for Harry and Neville, as he walked with McGonagall into the castle. Soon they approached Flitwick's classroom and asked to borrow a student. The two students then looked at each other with confused looks as they entered an empty classroom. Once inside Professor McGonagall turned to face the two students with a smirk on her face "Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood… I found you a Seeker…"

XXXXX

**Midnight**** that day:**

After seeing Woods, Harry informed his fellow Gryffindor's of the events after catching the remembrall, much too everyone's surprise. Apparently he is the youngest house player in a century according to Ron. Not long after that Harry met into Malfoy who then challenged him to a wizards duel which he at first denied but when Malfoy started talking trash about Neville and Hermione he was all for it.

Now normally Hermione is against breaking school rules like this but when your friends need your help then school rules go out the window… maybe. It took Harry quite awhile to convince Hermione with her absolutely refusing at first, until Harry said that if she doesn't become his second, then he'll have to ask Ron who they both know is the laziest boy in the entire school that only wants to talk about Quidditch and chess. So Hermione agreed to becoming Harry's second, much to Harry's relief as she probably knows more spells then he and Malfoy combined. They soon arrived at the trophy room but did not see Malfoy, they immediately knew something was wrong.

"Wotcher there Harry, Hermione," came a voice from behind them making the two of them jump.

"Tonks? Don't do that! You almost gave us a heart attack!" Hermione seethed out.

"What are you doing here Tonks?" asked Harry nervously.

"Oh I don't know… but when a portrait friend of mine came to tell me my two best friends are going to be in a wizards duel, I decided to come and stop them before they are kicked out of the school." Tonks said mockingly making Harry and Hermione flinch.

"Hey guys!" came another voice in the dark this time making all three of them jump.

"Neville!" all three of them shouted out in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" asked Hermione.

"I was on my way back from the Hospital Wing after when Madam Pomfrey healed my broken wrist, only to run into Malfoy informing Filch of a couple of students breaking school rules tonight. When I went back to the common room Ron told me you guy's are going to a wizards duel and I immediately came here to warn you."

"What!" said the other three.

"Malfoy that bastard!" said Harry.

"Harry language!" said Hermione.

"Now's not the time for this… we've got to get out of here before Filch or his cat gets here!"

In the distance they can hear Filch talking to his cat about sniffing out some rule breaking students.

Harry motioned for them to follow him. Pretty soon Tonks spoke out "Harry we can't be here this is the Third Corridor…"

"Right now we don't have much of a choice now do we?" asked Harry.

"Harry! Filch is gaining on us!" Hermione informed.

"Harry over here!" said Neville as he tried to open a door but it was locked.

"Move aside! Alohomora!" said Tonks and Hermione at the same time.

They then quickly went into the room closing the door behind them and all four slid down to the floor against the door their eyes closed while praying to Merlin while holding their breaths.

Finally when Filch's footsteps faded into the distance they all took a breath of relief before they heard a low growling noise. Opening their eyes they saw to their horror a giant three headed dog with drools coming out of their mouths with razor sharp teeth.

"Oh Merlin!" said Harry.

"Is that a Cerberus?" asked Hermione.

"As of right now I don't really want to know…" said Tonks.

"Um… I think its time for us to go…" said Neville nervously.

"I…I think that's a good idea…" said Harry.

And so they slowly very carefully stood up making sure not to provoke the three headed dog and slowly opened to door before closing it after when everyone was out. They all looked at each other with sweats on their foreheads before running down the Third Corridor screaming their lungs out thanking Merlin that no body is on the Third Corridor since it's forbidden.

Finally coming to a stop to take their breaths and think things through. "What in the bloody hell would a Cerberus be doing in a school!" Harry said.

"Do you think that that's why the Third Corridor is forbidden?" Hermione said while thinking.

"Don't know, but this is the first time the Third Corridor is forbidden," said Tonks.

"The dog… it's guarding something…" said Neville.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"The dog was standing on top of a trap door…" replied Neville.

"You know what? I think you're right!" said Hermione excitedly.

"Perceptive as always. Huh Neville?" Harry said with a smile.

"Well whatever it's guarding I don't really care, as of right now I really need to go to bed," Tonks said.

"Yeah I think we all do after what we've just been through…" agreed Harry.

They then each said their goodbyes before heading towards their own dorms for a good nights rest.

**One week later ****Hermione's birthday:**

Hermione was ecstatic this is the first time in her life that she is going to celebrate her birthday with friends! In the evening when all classes were done Hermione, Harry, Tonks and Neville went over to Hagrid's to celebrate her birthday. When she entered the hut there were balloons and a cake on the table right beside her presents. Her parents have sent over her present via a school owl while the other three ordered their present using Hedwig.

Finally it was time to open presents the first being Hagrid who got her a female Eagle owl so that she can communicate with her parents more conveniently. She went and hugged Hagrid saying thanks and that she would take great care of her. Neville was next and he gave her a remembrall saying that with all her studies going on a remembrall would greatly help out. She too thanked him with a hug. Tonks got her a book on the History of Magical Britain which she appreciated also with a hug. Harry then hand her, her present which contained a Quick Notes Quill and a Never Ending Ink for her studies. After a hug to Harry the four of them return back to the castle to finish up any homework before going back to bed.

The next morning at breakfast all of Harry's thoughts on the three headed dog were soon forgotten as he received his personal broomstick. Not to mention that he would finally be able to practice Quidditch for the first time ever. Yep Harry's troubles just went flying right out the window literally!

AN: I've always wondered how Ron always seems to have money to buy Christmas presents for Harry and Hermione and most likely his siblings. Especially considering that the Weasleys could barely afford books or even a wand. So no way can they give Ron an allowance to buy all these presents. So where does all this money come from?

Even though in the books it never said the Dursleys beat on Harry. Vernon almost always threatens him with violence in which Harry immediately backs off, that is very suspicious in my opinion. What is fact is that Dudley does indeed bully Harry and might have beaten on him in school.

Two words that are especially important in the Harry Potter universe and they are "First Impressions" Hagrid was the first person that treated Harry kindly and Harry respects Hagrid even if he's one of the worst Professors at Hogwarts. The Weasleys are the first family that treated Harry kindly without chasing him away for just asking a question. Ron is the first kid Harry's age to befriend him, because of that Harry is deathly loyal to Ron even if the jealous git betrayed and abandoned him twice. Not to mention that Ron was completely useless throughout the books with the exception of first year with the chess thing. Second year he was on the other side of the rocks with a broken wand leaving Harry to fight Riddle and a Basilisk alone. Third year he broke his legs thus leaving Harry and Hermione to do everything by themselves. Fourth year he abandoned Harry leaving only Hermione to help him with the Dragons. Fifth year he was incapacitated by a brain leaving everyone to fight for themselves and defend him at the same time. Sixth year he was finally able to do something without being taken out right away, but with the help of Felix Felicis to do that. Then Seventh year he once again abandoned Harry and Hermione in the middle of an important quest! The Chambers thing that he did at the end was nothing! Anyone could have done that if they saw Harry do it! So why did Harry keep him around because he was Harry's first friend…


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2****:**

A week has now passed since Harry's first Quidditch practice. As he walked into the Gryffindor common room after a hard day of practice, he noticed Hermione reading a book. Neville on the other hand is having some difficulties doing homework.

After putting away his Quidditch robes and broom he then went to their table and pulled out his own homework. After a while he decided to take a break from homework and so he asked Hermione "Hermione what are you reading?"

Hermione then looked up from the book to face Harry "**Hogwarts, a History**. Why?"

"Oh nothing, just wandering… so what does it say about Hogwarts?"

At this point Hermione all of a sudden brightened up and began spewing facts from the book. Like the fact that Hogwarts is about a thousand years old, was founded by four great witches and wizards. Hogwarts is protected by very powerful magic including wards and many complex spells. The castle itself still has many unknowns and is a topic of great interests to historians and spell breakers. During this time Harry was quite fascinated, especially since he now knows why Hagrid claimed that Hogwarts might be even safer to guard something than even Gringotts.

"Guys I'm trying to do homework here…" interrupted an annoyed Neville which promptly stopped Hermione's endless ramblings, therefore forcing Harry to return to his homework.

XXXXX

**Halloween: **

Today in charms class the students was taught a new spell that allows a witch or a wizard to levitate any objects. Stronger and more powerful witches or wizards will be able to levitate heavier and larger objects, but since the class consist of first years Professor Flitwick prepared feathers for the class to work on.

"And that's how you do the Hover Charm class. You will now each try and levitate the feathers that are on your desks. You may begin!" squeaked the petite Professor.

Thus the class went to work on their feathers. Harry and Neville were also having difficulties performing the charm but continued at it. Hermione seeing this gave them pointers which greatly helped them out much to their relief.

Ron having as much difficulty with the charm as Harry and Neville soon became frustrated and his attitude eventually went worse when Hermione decided to help him out as well.

"You're saying it wrong. It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long." Hermione corrected to Ron.

"Oh yeah… well if you're so good at it, then lets see it then," retorted Ron.

Hermione then casted her charm making the feather float several feet into the air making Flitwick squeal in delight but making Ron flush up in anger and embarrassment.

At the end of class Ron went to his two friends whose names are Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. "She thinks she's so great doesn't she? Always trying to make everyone thinks she's all that, but she's not! Honestly I don't know how she managed to make friends in the first place!" Ron ranted out loud making Dean and Seamus uncomfortable.

Hermione then ran past Harry and Neville carry her bag and was gone before Harry and Neville could stop her.

Harry feeling his emotions boiling was about to punch Ron's face in when Neville put a hand on Harry's shoulder preventing Harry from moving. "Harry calm down, as much as we want to turn Ron's face into dung, what we need to do first is to find Hermione…"

Harry after listening to Neville decided that Ron will get his punishment sooner or later, decided to listen to Neville's advice, and so the two of them spent the entire morning looking for her. Hermione was no where to be found, she did not attend any of the afternoon classes and no one seems to know where she is.

It wasn't until the Halloween Feast did Harry and Neville overheard Parvati Patil and her friend Lavender discussing about Hermione "Are you sure she's in the girls' toilets in the dungeons?" asked Lavender.

Parvati nodded and said "Yes I overheard some Slytherin's talking about it…"

"Where?" interrupted Harry and Neville before she could finish talking.

Parvati and Lavender jumped while covering their ears "What?" asked Parvati.

"Which part of the dungeon?" asked Harry.

"Th…the east wing!" yelped Parvati.

"Thank you!" Harry said happily.

But his expression soon turned to horror when Quirrell barged into the feast shouting out "Trolls in the dungeons!" before passing out.

The Professors and Prefects immediately went to work to organize and calm the situation.

Harry and Neville was about to go towards the dungeons when they overheard a Hufflepuff first year say "Oh no! Susan and Hannah are in the dungeons!"

"What!" exclaimed Harry and Neville.

The Hufflepuff looked at Harry and Neville nervously before continuing "Yes they are on the west wing in the girls' toilets. I think they are trying to perform some kind of ritual."

Harry and Neville looked at each other before nodding and ran towards the dungeons.

Tonks from the opposite side of the hall managed to notice the two acting weirdly. After watching them run out of the Great Hall, she then went up to Parvati and Lavender and asked "Hey there, what did Harry and Neville say to you girls?"

Parvati and Lavender exchanged suspicious looks before Parvati asked "Why do you want to know?"

Tonks smiled and said "Don't worry I'm not trying to get them into trouble, my name is Nymphadora Tonks. You can call me Tonks, I am a friend of Harry's."

Parvati and Lavender then let out a sigh of relief with Lavender answering "They asked us where Hermione was and we told them that she was in the girls' toilets on the east side the dungeon..."

Tonks then yelled out "What!" before dashing out of the hall towards the dungeons, leaving a stunned Parvati and Lavender behind.

No one else noticed the three run out of the hall as the Professors and Prefects were too busy trying to prevent a panic from the rest of the students.

XXXXX

**Harry and Neville:**

Once the two reached the dungeons Harry spoke up "I will go get Hermione while you go and get Susan and Hannah. Once we have the girls, leave the dungeons right away. Don't try and find out what happen to the others, alright?"

Neville nodded and said "Be careful Harry…" before running down the west wing while Harry took the east.

XXXXX

**Hermione:**

Hermione was having a terrible day; first she was openly insulted by the lazy slacker that can't do anything right. All she wanted to do was to help the boy out when she saw him struggle and what does she get in return? She was insulted, embarrassed, scared and reminded of her past life in Muggle School. She literally cried herself to exhaustion and just when she thought her day couldn't get any worse, a smelly Troll came into the girls' toilets swinging around a club and trying to maul her to death!

XXXXX

**Harry:**

Not long after Harry began to notice a very disgusting smell coming from the girl's toilets'. Fearing for Hermione's safety he dashed into the room only to see the Troll towering over himself. He then noticed Hermione cuddled up into a corner of the room completely terrified. Harry then summoned up all of his Gryffindor courage and leaped onto the back of the Troll.

XXXXX

**Neville:**

Neville ran like he never ran before towards the girls' toilets hoping that he would still find the two girls in good health. Not once did he think that he might get beaten up if he were to be found entering the girls' toilets with girls' still inside. No all he thought at the moment was to get to the girls as fast as possible and then get the bloody hell out of the dungeons. With that his paced quickened considerably.

XXXXX

**Susan and Hannah:**

Susan and Hannah have been the best of friends ever since they were kids. Their families are close and so they met each other at a very young age. Throughout their life they spent most of their time with each other and so they basically became inseparable.

They viewed each other not only as best friends but also as sisters, they didn't care that they are not related by blood, in fact other than blood you could say they couldn't become any closer.

That was until they attended Hogwarts and accidentally found a book in the Library with information about a certain ritual called the Oath of Sibling Bond. This ritual actually makes people who are not related by blood able to become sworn siblings.

Once they become sworn siblings the bond makes it impossible for each other to betray and hurt one another. It basically makes them become magically bonded as siblings for life!

And so with the thought of becoming even closer to each other, they chose today as the day to perform the ritual as the Professor and Prefects would be too busy with the festivities to stop them.

After cutting a slit on their fingers and letting a drop of blood from each other to fall into a goblet which is on top of a runic circle. The two then kneeled down in front of the goblet and started to chant the Oath one after another.

"I, Hannah Abbott solemnly swear on my life and magic to become Susan Bones's sworn sister for all the good times as well as the bad times. We may not be born into the same family but our bonds will be closer than true blood siblings."

"I, Susan Bones' solemnly swear on my life and magic to become Hannah Abbott's sworn sister for all the good times as well as the bad times. We may not be born into the same family but our bonds will be closer than true blood siblings."

"So mote it…" both said at the same time.

XXXXX

**Neville:**

Neville dashed into the room and called out "Susan! Hannah!" not knowing that he just interrupted the bonding ritual.

"Neville?" both said at the same time.

XXXXX

**Harry and Hermione:**

Harry latched on to the back of the Troll and shouted out "Hermione are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"Ha…Harry? Ye… yes I'm alright. I'm fine. Wh… what are you doing here?"

"I'm here trying to get you out of the dungeons before the Troll reaches you, but that plan just went out the window…"

The Troll noticing Harry on its back started to sway around trying to shake Harry off but at the same time using its arms to try and reach for Harry.

"Harry just run! Go get help! It's my fault we're in this situation! I'm so stupid!" cried Hermione as more tears filled her eyes.

"Yes you are stupid! How can you tell me to just leave you with Mr. Ugly here! Hermione I'm your friend and I don't abandon my friends! It took me 10 years to finally have friends and every one of you is precious to me!" Harry shouted out as he pulled out his wand from his robes.

But at the same time the Troll managed to grab hold of Harry's leg and with its great strength flung Harry at the wall right next to Hermione. Thinking quickly Harry remembered one of the charms that they learned not too long ago and with a quick wave of his wand. He shouted out "_Spongify_" and an orange beam hit the wall before Harry himself came smacking into it. Thanks to the cushioning effect Harry landed quite softly right next to Hermione who then embraced him.

But their reunion was short lived when the Troll let out a mighty roar and started advancing menacingly towards them.

XXXXX

**Neville, Susan and Hannah:**

In the second when both said his name two red magical strings came out of the goblet and wrapped itself around Neville. During this time Neville felt a surge of magic enter his body and it began to assimilate into himself, after a few moments the magic found something that should not be there and in one mighty push it blasted away the incomplete Memory Charm casted upon him when he was a baby.

In that moment some of Neville's memories came flooding back; memories of Neville being taught magic by his relatives, memories of his classes that he can never remember for long, memories that he would never be able to remember without the help of a remembrall.

After when the Memory Charm vanished, the magic was finally able to be assimilated within Neville. Neville for the first time in his life felt complete, unhindered and free. It was like being shackled and chained down unable to stretch out his hands, but now he felt like he can do almost anything.

Neville stared at his hands like he was blinded all his life and just now he has gain sight once more. The feeling felt amazing, it felt good and he felt a new found confidence within himself.

As Neville pondered on his newest feelings, the other end of the two red magical strings rose up from the goblet and each string wrapped itself around Susan and Hannah. They too felt a strong magic rush into their bodies and began assimilating with their magical core. But unlike Neville where the magic had to remove any impurities, the bonding magic assimilated quite easily with the two girls.

After when the red string vanished the three looked at each other and wondered what just happened. But before any of them can say anything a strong smell just entered the room causing all three to look towards the exit. And to their horror a Troll walked in carrying a club looking ready to smash their skulls in.

XXXXX

**Harry and Hermione:**

Hermione seeing the Troll advancing towards them clung even tighter to Harry. Harry on the other hand gulped and started firing spells that he knew from class but none were effective against the magically resistant monster.

Hermione looked into Harry's eyes and saw the pure determination from within those green orbs, the determination to save her and get them out of here. But she soon lost all hope and closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable.

Harry running out of options is now waving his wand frantically and just hoping against hope that some miracle will happen. With a frustrated yell he shouted out "Come on! Come on! Do something you stupid wand!"

In that instant a white light erupted from the wand and struck the ceiling directly above the Troll. Cracking noises soon followed causing the Troll to look upwards at the ceiling. Soon the ceiling above the Troll collapsed right on top of the Troll burying the Troll underneath it.

Harry looked at the buried Troll then at his wand in total disbelief. He just took out the Troll by complete accident! Harry then began rubbing his wand with his sleeve and said to the wand "Did I say stupid? Hahaha… What I meant was best wand in the world!"

Hermione hearing Harry shout out in joy opened her eyes and saw one of the Trolls legs sticking out from under the rubble. She soon realized that the ceiling collapsed and she looked at Harry with wide eyes and asked "Did you do that?"

Harry nodded and she embraced him yet again this time shouting out in joy with tears in her eyes "You saved me Harry, you saved my life!"

In that second both Harry and Hermione's eyes glowed golden before returning normal without each other even noticing it.

Harry was now literally really happy but soon realization came to him that they needed to get out of there before the Professors arrive. "Hermione we need to get out of here or we might get expelled!" Harry shouted and grabbed Hermione's hand and led her out of the washroom.

As they exited the room, Tonks shouted out "Hey Harry, Hermione! Wotcha doing here?"

Harry surprised that Tonks followed him grabbed her hands as well. Tonks surprised at Harry holding her hand looked at him then at the washroom and her eyes widened in surprise. "Harry what did you…"

"Not now Tonks, we'll talk later…" said Harry as he led the two girls out of the dungeon while thinking '_Neville I hope you're alright…_'

XXXXX

**Neville, Susan and Hannah:**

The two girls screamed as they saw the Troll walking in menacingly. Neville on the other hand groaned and thought '_Damn I was too late!_''

Neville started to back away from the Troll while Susan and Hannah hugged each other in fright. '_Come on Neville think! Think!_''

As he thought this another memory resurfaced; this one with one of his uncles telling him about Trolls.

"_Now remember Neville, Trolls are extremely strong and powerful. They are resistant to magic and should only be taken on by experienced witches and wizards. If you ever see a Troll __then remember four words 'run, run and run!'"_

'_Well that option is out the window, the Troll is blocking the only path out!_' Neville thought to himself.

"_And if that is not an option then remember this next thing; Trolls maybe strong and powerful but they are incredibly dumb, but that's just one of its weaknesses, the other one is their heads. Their heads are fragile compared to its body__, and at the same time not as magically resistant, so just take something and smack their heads with it."_

Neville then immediately looked around; searching for anything they could use to smash the Trolls head with. Eventually his eyes laid upon the club the Troll used to smash up sinks with.

Thinking quickly he shouted out "Susan, Hannah! I need your help to take this guy down!"

"What! You want us to fight that… that thing!" said a shocked Susan.

"Yes! If you want to live!" shouted out Neville.

Hannah looked at the determined Neville then at Susan before nodding and stood up with her wand in hand.

Susan seeing Hannah actions soon followed and said "Alright what do you want us to do Neville?"

"I need you two to distract it for a few seconds…"

"And how do you want us to distract that thing?" asked a nervous Hannah.

Neville looked around and spotted a large chunk of sink that the Troll smashed earlier and immediately asked "Do you two know how to use the Hover Charm?" After when the two nodded he continued "I want the two of you to use the Hover Charm on that piece of sink over there," while pointing at the sink on the ground.

"But that thing is too big and heavy! We only barely managed to lift the feather in class, how can you expect us to lift the sink?" said Susan.

"Work together and combine your magic and you can do it, I believe in you so you should believe in yourselves!" said Neville as he ducked after a swing from the club.

After hearing Neville's encouragement the two focused on their magic and started on the Hovering Charm.

Meanwhile Neville is running around dodging swipes from the Troll before tripping on a chunk of debris falling onto the floor.

The Troll seeing Neville fall down started laughing at Neville while raising the club high up in the air.

Susan and Hannah now breathing heavy after a couple of failures finally managed to make the sink float up to the Trolls height catching the eye of the Troll. The Troll out of instinct swung the club at the sink smashing it to pieces.

Neville using the moment of distraction quickly waved his wand and sent a Cutting Charm right to the eyes of the Troll causing the Troll to shout out in pain and swing its hands upwards towards its eyes on reflex. Unfortunately for the Troll, it was still holding its club making the club strike itself right in the face and therefore knocking itself out and fell straight towards the floor.

Neville rolled out of the way just in time before the Troll could land on top of him, after standing up he yelled towards Susan and Hannah "Good work! Now lets get out of here!"

Susan and Hannah seeing their plan worked out let out a sigh of relief before hugging each other in joy but soon separated after Neville's shout. They then went to pick up the Goblet and the book as well as wiping away the runic symbol.

After that the three of them left the washroom running up the stairs and out of the dungeon.

XXXXX

**Harry, Hermione and Tonks****:**

After leaving the dungeons the three ran into an empty room and after closing the door Harry and Hermione fell to the floor in deep breaths with Tonks slightly winded.

After when everyone's breathing returned to normal, Hermione began explaining about why she was doing in the girls toilets. Tonks was fuming during Hermione's talk about Ron and his behaviour. Tonks was also scared when she heard about the Troll cornering Hermione but then smiled when she heard about Harry arriving just in time before the Troll could seriously harm Hermione.

"And that's when Harry jumped onto the Troll's back drawing the attention of the Troll from me onto him. But then when the Troll caught Harry's leg and flung him towards the wall, I was scared that he might get injured. Then Harry used the Cushioning Charm and made the wall soft, it was really quick thinking…" Hermione said with enthusiasm making Tonks impressed while at the same time making Harry blush.

As Hermione reached the end Harry decided to fill in the gaps "I was literally running out of choices so I just waved the wand frantically hoping something would happen and by chance the wand blasted the ceiling and made it collapse onto the Troll and that's about it."

"Hmm… I'm impressed Harry not many first years can take on a full grown Troll even if it's by accident, so well done!" Tonks said while patting him on the back. "But I do have a question, where's Neville? I saw the two of you heading to the dungeons but I only found the two of you…" pondered Tonks.

"Neville and I split up when we reached the dungeons. He went to go find Susan and Hannah who are on the west wing and I went to find Hermione who was on the east wing…" replied Harry.

This sudden news shocked Tonks and Hermione and soon they became very worried with Tonks saying "Well what are we waiting for? We need to go help them!"

Harry firmly shook his head before saying "No, I believe in Neville. Everyone seems to think he is incapable of doing anything right to the point of calling him a squib. But that isn't the case; Neville is one who has a lot of potential, I don't know why but I can feel power radiating from within him, what he needs right now is the confidence to draw out said power. The thing we can do right now is to believe in him and make him believe in himself!" Harry said with a firm expression.

Hermione still a little nervous nodded and said "I hope you're right Harry…"

Tonks smile and said "It's important to help out a friend but there are times when believing in them takes priority and I guess this is the time… After all he was trained ever since he could walk by his relatives so I think he can take care of himself, if Harry can do it then so can he… anyways I think it's time for us to return to our house and get some much needed rest…"

Harry and Hermione nodded before standing up and went to the door. Tonks checked for any presence in the hall and when there wasn't any the three left the room and headed for their respective house.

XXXXX

**Neville, Susan and Hannah:**

Neville, Susan and Hannah also grabbed an empty room and went inside. After a while when everyone's breath has returned to normal Neville finally decided to ask "So… what were the two of you doing in the girls toilets in the dungeons? And what was that red string thing that wrapped around us?"

Susan looked worried to Hannah who simply sighed and said "The two of us were trying to perform a Sibling Bond Ritual but then you came in and interrupted the ritual leading to something else happening… we don't know what the red string thing is, it's not in the book. I think it's something unique and since it wrapped around us, something must have happened to us…"

Neville nodded after listening to Hannah "Hmm… well I guess I'll just leave it at that. But I am glad that everyone's safe now."

Susan let out a sigh of relief before quickly saying "You won't tell the Professors will you? It could get the two of us expelled…"

Neville seeing Susan about to cry quickly said "Don't worry, don't worry I won't tell!"

"You promise?" asked Susan weakly.

Neville quickly nodded and said with a smile "I promise!"

At that Susan flung herself at him giving him a huge hug but then on contact both Neville and Susan felt each others happiness and at the same time felt each others presence as if they can literally hear and feel each others heartbeat.

The two immediately separated with shocked and flushing faces. This did not go unnoticed by Hannah, who gave the two a curious look. She then put an arm on Susan who jumped and asked "Susan what's wrong?"

Susan looked at Hannah and shook her head saying "I, I don't know Hannah something weird is going on…"

Hannah who is now very confused turned to Neville and asked him instead "Neville what's wrong?"

Neville deep in thought and still feeling what he thinks is Susan's emotions and presence didn't notice Hannah talking to him.

Hannah after a couple of tries trying to get Neville's attention became annoyed and decided to put her two hands on his shoulders trying to shake him out of his thoughts. At the contact both she and Neville felt the same thing as when Susan touched him.

Quickly separating form each other, Neville now with a very shocked expression on his face, due to him now feeling the presence and emotions of both Susan and Hannah.

Hannah now like Susan felt Neville's shocked and surprised emotions as well as his presence decided to look towards Susan who gave her an equal confused and surprised look.

After a while of silence and the emotions soon settled down the three decided to speak once more with Neville asking "Did you also feel something when you touched me?"

Both Susan and Hannah nodded their heads, Hannah then stated "I felt your emotions and presence and by the look on Susan's face I'll say that she feels the same…"

"So you two felt only my presence and emotions and not each others?" said Neville looking between the two girls who nodded their heads. "But, but I'm feeling the two of you at the same time! Just what is going on here?"

Susan shook her head and said "I don't know? Do, do you think it has something to do with the red string?"

Both Neville and Hannah snapped their head towards Susan making her shrink "That must be it!" shouted out Neville with Hannah nodding.

Silence then entered the room once again leaving the three to look at each other nervously. Soon Neville said "I think we should go to bed and think this over… maybe tomorrow we should go to the library and look this up…"

Both Susan and Hannah nodded and stood up with Hannah saying "Okay we'll meet up tomorrow at breakfast…"

With that the three checked the halls before saying goodbye and left for their respective common rooms.

XXXXX

**The dungeons: girls' toilets ****east wing:**

Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, Flitwick and Quirrell looked at the scene with shocked expressions. They had just came from the west wing and found a unconscious Troll lying on the floor with a cracked skull and now they find another Troll being buried under what appears to be a collapsed spot on the ceiling.

"Who could have done this?" asked McGonagall.

"I don't know Minerva but whoever it is, must be someone who is at least a 7th year…" said a grim Dumbledore.

"Well of course, who can take out two full grown Mountain Trolls in such a sort time and disappear before any of us arrive," snorted Snape.

"I agree with Severus, the person who did this must be incredibly powerful or experienced…" squeaked Flitwick.

"But who in the 7th year has this potential? I don't recall teaching anyone with this capability," said Sprout.

"So…so what should we do about th… this the… then?" stuttered Quirrell.

Dumbledore let out a sigh "I want each of you to check for any unusual magic and tell Filch to clean up the toilets. Don't let any of the students know about this…" said Dumbledore as he left the toilets rubbing his eyebrows.

As Dumbledore entered his office he began to pace around thinking about the events of the night. "Who could have done this? The Potter boy? No, that can't be. The Dursley made sure to beat as much magic out of him as possible. Besides the boy barely knows any magic at all, and with the Weasley boy hinder… helping him with Quidditch and Chess, Harry shouldn't be able to do something like this…"

'_But then who else?_' thought Dumbledore.

"The Longbottom boy? No, not possible. I made sure of that and besides the boy's basically a squib according to his relatives. He's a wimp, no threat at all. But then who? Did anyone in our school have this potential other than the two children's of the Prophecy? Did I miss something? Is there another out there that has the potential to become a dark lord that is in this very school?"

'_I can't let another dark lord walk out of here this time…_' thought the headmaster as he paced the night away.

XXXXX

**Hufflepuff common room:**

Susan and Hannah entered the room and were immediately confronted by a happy Tonks "I'm glad to see you two are alright, how is Neville, is he alright?"

Susan and Hannah exchanged confused looks, Tonks seeing this smiled and said "Come sit down and I'll explain. It all started when I noticed Harry and Neville quickly leaving the Great Hall and I decided to find out what they were up to…"

XXXXX

**Gryffindor common room:**

As Neville entered the common room he was quickly hugged by Hermione while Harry stood smiling. Neville returned the hug and smiled back at Harry before saying "Harry, Hermione! Boy am I glad to see you both are alright!"

Hermione stepping back said "Yes I'm alright thanks to Harry here who saved my life!" while giving Harry a big smile.

"We are fine, how is Susan and Hannah?" asked Harry while pointing towards a table.

As the three took a seat around the table Neville began telling them what happened down in his part of the dungeon. He told them everything but the mysterious red string and its effect on him and the two girls.

After when Neville finished telling the two what happened, they too began telling them of their own battles down in the girls' toilets.

After a while Neville said his goodnight and went up to the boy's dormitory leaving Harry and Hermione alone in the common room. Hermione sensing Harry's looming question decided to speak first "Okay Harry what is it that you want to know?"

Harry looked at Hermione curiously before asking "Why Hermione? Hermione were you so upset about what Ron said. I mean I can understand that I too would be mad if he said it to me… but to avoid everyone for the entire day? I don't understand…"

Hermione looked at Harry with a sad expression before sighing and said "Before I came to Hogwarts, I was in a muggle school as you already know. During my time there, I was what people call a book worm, know it all, show off and sometimes teachers pet. My bushy hair and large teeth allowed some to give me nicknames like 'Beaver' or just plain 'Ugly'." Hermione wiped a few tears from her eyes before continuing "I wasn't able to make any friends, people tend to stay away from me. The other smart kids are jealous of my grades and work ethics while the average kids would use whatever they can to down grade my character. It's either be bullied or get ignored, that's why when I heard that I was qualified for Hogwarts it made me happy. You should know Harry, what it feels like to be a loner with no friends…"

"Yeah I know the feeling well, it hurts to be alone, and it hurts to have no one care about you…" Harry said sadly not looking at Hermione.

Hermione nodded "I was happy that I would get a chance at a fresh start and hopefully that things would be different. But sadly that was not the case. No one really wanted to talk to me, there are people like Ron who find me to be a nuisance and then there's people like Malfoy who looks down on me based on my background…"

Harry quickly said "Ron's a lazy, jealous prick Hermione! Just ignore everything the idiot says next time. Malfoy is a spoiled brat who thinks he owns the castle. His way of thinking is so backwards that it is actually hundreds of years behind the way muggles thinks!"

Hermione looked towards the ceiling as if contemplating something before answering "I was so happy when you invited Neville and me to join you and Tonks at the compartment." Hermione smiled while wiping some more tears "I was so happy to finally have friends; friends that would talk to me, friends who would play with me and just having friends to spend time with…"

Harry smiled as he looked at Hermione "Yeah, friends who care about you, friends who support you in what you do and friends who are there when you need them to…" he said as he too wiped some of his own tears from his eyes.

"That's why when Ron said that I shouldn't have any friends, I became scared. I was scared of losing you, Neville and Tonks, scared that you guys might leave me because of my overbearing nature and all the things that made the muggles hate me." Harry was about to say something before Hermione stopped him with a smile and continued on "But then you came into the washroom and leapt onto the back of the Troll just to save me! I was shocked that someone really does care for me other than my parents. What surprised me the most was when you said that I am important you. You would risk your life for me, and that touched me more than anything and anyone else in the world. You showed me just what it means to be a friend and now I'm glad to be friends with you, Tonks and Neville. So thank you Harry…" Hermione finished as she leaned in to give Harry a peck on the cheeks causing Harry to blush and freeze up.

Hermione giggled at his antics as she stood up and said "It's getting late and we still have classes tomorrow. Well good night Harry." She then walked up the girl's stairs and up to her dormitory.

Harry raised a hand toward his cheeks, slowly rubbing it, not long a smile spread across his face and then he too went to bed for a good nights sleep.

XXXXX

The next morning Harry, Neville and Hermione went down to the breakfast table and were soon joined by Tonks, Susan and Hannah. This resulted in surprised looks from the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.

After the three Hufflepuffs greeted the three Gryffindors, they then sat down across from the three Gryffindors and began to eat.

After breakfast Tonks officially introduced Susan and Hannah to the group of friends. With that done the group then went out for a walk as the schedules for classes are a bit delayed due to the Troll event last night. Tonks then lead the group out of the castle towards the lake. Neville purposefully lagged behind Harry and Hermione to talk to Susan and Hannah.

"Hey how are you two doing?" Neville asked worriedly.

Susan and Hannah exchanged glances before Hannah replied "We're fine Neville, thanks for asking."

"Good to hear. So we'll meet up in the library after classes then?"

Susan then nodded and said "Ok."

"Alright then… oh before I forget, I didn't tell the others about our predicament and I was wondering if it's alright not to tell them about it yet. At least not until we know what's wrong with us… Is that alright with the both of you?" Neville said with a serious expression.

Susan was confused but Hannah nodded and said "Yes I agree, this is quite personal and they won't be of much help anyways. Besides you don't want them to worry about us do you?"

Neville nodded "Its not that I don't trust them. In fact I trust them with my life but after what happened yesterday… I don't know how to explain this but I just want to try and figure this out without any extra help. It's like I finally found myself after a long time and everything is just so refreshing… Does this make any sense?"

Susan shook her head and said "Nope, none at all but if you don't want them to know about it then we won't tell them. But sooner or later we are going to have to since they are your friends' right?"

Neville nodded with a big smile and said "They are my best friends but right now it's just not the right time…"

Hannah nodded and said "Ok then. We better hurry and catch up or they might get suspicious." With that the three of them then quickened their pace.

The group eventually found a shady spot under a tree near the lake to relax and started talking about last night's events.

Susan and Hannah had to explain why they were down in the dungeons while Harry and Neville explained what happened at the end of Charms class. Susan and Hannah were not happy about Ron when they heard what Ron said about Hermione. Sure Hermione is sometimes annoying but to say that she doesn't deserve friends is crossing the line. After a few insults directed at a certain red haired boy the group went on to discuss about Susan and Hannah's close sisterly relationship. The four friends were quite impressed at their closeness and their willingness to bond as siblings. They wished that they would have someone like that in their lives.

Pretty soon it was time for classes to begin and so said their goodbyes and went for their respective classes.

XXXXX

**Three days later**** at the library:**

Ever since Halloween, Susan and Hannah are now seen around with Harry and the others during breakfast and free time. But whenever classes have ended Neville would meet up with Susan and Hannah in the library. Neville of course would be giving one excuse after another to go to the library without drawing too much of a suspicion from his two best friends. Today is no exception as the three of them are once again at the library searching for something relating to their predicament.

"Have you two found anything yet?" asked a tired Neville while flipping through a thick book in the library.

Hannah shook her head "No, not yet. We've basically searched every book in the library especially the books that have the word bond in it and there's nothing in there that even remotely resemble our predicament! The original book doesn't have anything either, the sibling bond is suppose to glow red signify the bond as complete but what happened to us is completely different!"

Susan now very flustered but calmly said "Well all the books except for the forbidden ones in the forbidden section…"

Neville sighed and said "Well it looks like we need to look through those as well then."

Hannah quickly said "But we need a Professor's signature in order to read those!"

Neville then smiled and said "Don't worry about that, I can ask Professor Sprout for that. She seems to like me because Herbology is my best subject. All I need to do is say that I want to further my study on more dangerous or rare plants that are in the forbidden section and that should do it."

Susan looked at Neville with a shocked expression "Wow Neville you are getting bolder these days."

"Well I am a Gryffindor you know…" Neville replied shyly.

Hannah nodded with a smile "Alright then, we'll leave it to you."

With that done the three of them left the library and returned towards their respective dorms.

XXXXX

**Headmaster's office:**

Dumbledore sat in his office with two hands covering his pale sleepless face. Over the last three days he has not have a goodnights sleep. The Troll event has caused many parents to send in howlers berating him for not keeping the school safe and allowing monsters to wonder into the castle.

The Daily Prophet did not help when they printed the article of the break in by Trolls. After sending out countless mails assuring parents and the public alike that Hogwarts is still a very safe place for students to learn and that the Troll thing is a once in a thousand years kind of thing, did the howlers stop and he is finally able to get in some form of sleep.

But soon that little bit of sleep also vanished when his staff finished their inspection and informed him of the grim news.

"Sir, the magic used in the restroom with the collapsed ceiling is unrecognisable as it is not a spell or curse but what appears to be just pure magical force, a very powerful magical force at that," Snape stated with utmost clarity.

Dumbledore paled but it was Sprout who spoke up "Not a spell or curse, but pure magical force? That's ridiculous, there's no one alive in Magical UK except for the Headmaster that can pull off such a thing!"

McGonagall then said "I'm afraid so, just looking at the size of the hole in the ceiling will tell you it's due to a person with a very powerful magical core."

Dumbledore nodded and asked "What of the other room, what magic was used in that room?"

This time Flitwick spoke up "The magic used in this room is unknown, I have tried and searched through many books and found nothing that have any information on this mysterious magic. What I do know is that it is very powerful, perhaps one of the most powerful magic that I have ever detected. Further more the Troll is now blinded due to a cutting curse aimed perfectly at the eyes. But what worries me the most is the evidence that suggests that it is the Troll itself that smashed its own skull open."

Sprout looked at Flitwick in confusion and asked "Huh? Why does that bother you?"

Flitwick turned to face Sprout and calmly said "Although Trolls are considered to be one of the most stupidest creatures out there they are not dumb enough to hit themselves so hard that it would crack open their skull…"

McGonagall then asked "What are you suggesting Filius?"

Flitwick then paled and nervously choked out "The only explanation would be the Imperius Curse…"

The whole entire room was then filled with gasps at the revelation. Dumbledore on the other hand felt sick and he quickly waved his hands and said "Please leave the room and allow me time to think this through…"

The other Professor now with very nervous looks on their faces slowly but surely left the room and leaving behind a Headmaster that looks like he is about to faint.

Dumbledore sank into his chair and once again rested his now very pale and sickly face onto his palms and thought '_There is a 7__th__ year student here that has a very powerful magical core, uses very powerful unknown magic and has the capacity to use an Unforgivable Curse… Am I too late to stop this new threat? Have I have paid too much attention to Potter and Longbottom that I have neglected to scout for other Dark Lord Potentials? What should I do now? No, I know what I should do… yes I need to put my full attention to seeking out this new threat and nip it in the bud before it can sprout. I just hope that I am not too late. Potter has the Weasleys to look after him and Longbottom is of no consequence._'

Dumbledore sighed as he knows that there will now be many sleepless nights to follow as the new revelation has proven to him that the future is grim, very grim indeed.

AN: Sorry for the long wait, with classes starting and everything else that life provides. I have decided to release this chapter so that I can mainly focus on midterms.

On a side note, yes I have decided to make this a bonding fic. As of right now the five major harem fics that actually works are bonding, life debts, slavery, Lord is allowed Polygamy and marriage contracts. Slavery is just bad in my opinion and I just hate it. Lord can marry multiple times is good but then I would have to explain why Lucius Malfoy and other Death Eaters only have one wife… or I could give them OC wives but that is just a hassle and I don't want to give them wives for them to abuse even if its OC. Marriage contracts works great and I can see James happily doing them but then Lily would have put a stop to them. Not to mention the fact that; why would the girls parents set them up to marry somebody who hasn't even been born yet? Tonks and Fleur are older than Harry. So I am left with Bonding and Life Debts.

Sorry to all those who wanted to have Susan be with Harry but no she belongs with Neville in this story. So yes Neville also has his own harem. Now I know I said that I would never have canon pairings from fifth year and onwards but I really did not know that Neville ended up with Hannah as the books never stated that fact. I thought that Neville never married. It was only when I had all this planned out did I find out later that Neville ended up with Hannah so that's not really breaking my vow.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3****:**

**Library:**

After receiving the permission note from Professor Sprout. Neville, Susan and Hannah are now desperately searching the forbidden section of the library hoping to find a book that can tell them of what had occurred in the girl's toilets.

"You girls find anything?" asked Neville with some panic in his voice as he just went through a whole row of books.

Susan whispered out "No, nothing. How about you? Hannah."

Hannah then let out a deep sigh and said "None. What I want to know is how can Hogwarts be one of the best schools of magic and yet they don't even have information on what happened to us on Halloween!"

After searching the rest of the forbidden section; Susan and Hannah then approached Neville with a defeated look. Susan then asked "Well now what do we do?"

Hannah then shook her head "Good question… What do you think Neville?"

"Well what we can do right now is to test what exactly the red string did to us. You know test its limits and all that. It's better if we understand what's happened to us than to have it sprung up on us in important times…"

Susan looked at Neville before saying "Um… isn't that what we were doing before? Searching the entire library for answers?"

Hannah shook her head "That was the quick way to learn what happened to us but since there isn't a single book about the red string event… We just have to test out exactly what the red string did to us…"

Neville nodded and asked "Do you think you girls can come to my house sometime during the holidays?"

Susan and Hannah then looked at each other and nodded "I think we can come over after New Years. Hannah and I will be celebrating Christmas and New Years together and after that we can convince our parents if we can go over to your house."

Neville then smiled and said "Alright then we've got ourselves a plan!"

XXXXX

**Knockturn alley:**

Deep within the dark alley during a bright and sunny day, the buildings cast an eerily looming shadow darkening the whole area that can make an upright shopper tremble in fear and break out in cold sweats. A man finely dressed man walked out of a bar after having a quick drink and said to himself "Ah… not really the best place to have a quick drink but when you are low on gold this place is your best friend."

A group of goblins then almost immediately surrounded the finely dressed man. The biggest goblin then went up and swung a club right next to the man's head. A much smaller goblin then spoke out while shaking his head "Ludo… Ludo you know better than that."

Ludo Bagman now sweating up a storm nervously replied "I… I don't know what you mean Nipshark…"

Nipshark then gave a nasty grin and said "Don't take me for a fool Ludo. Now if you have the gold for a drink why did you not pay us the gold that you have borrowed from us?"

Ludo Bagman now shaking quickly said "I… I don't have any more gold really! If I did I wouldn't be drinking from this bar!"

Nipshark then gave Ludo a sneer "Well then what are you going to do about our little gold problem?"

Bagman then quickly said "I'll… I'll think of something! I promise! You know our minister! He's easy to manipulate! You'll get your gold back I swear!"

The little goblin then took in what Bagman said and then nodded at the larger goblin. The larger goblin then removed the club from Bagman's head while Nipshark said in a deep voice "Don't let us down Ludo…" The goblins then retreated back into the alley and soon they were gone from sight.

Bagman then wiped away the sweat on his face and quickly ran out into the alley with the only thoughts of getting back to the Ministry of Magic as quickly as he can.

XXXXX

**Ministry of Magic:**

A couple of days later at the Ministry of Magic Cornelius Fudge sat in his office with his Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge pondering what he should do to make his reign go down in history and therefore securing his name in the years to come.

After a while of thinking and coming up with nothing, he ordered for a meeting with all the Department Heads.

Once all the Department Heads have arrived he began "It has been roughly ten years since the fall of He Who Must Not Be Named. Magical UK has finally been stabilized and most of the tragic events have nearly been forgotten. We now need to look forward to the future and we now must show our neighbouring countries that we are still strong. We need something to show our power and standing in Europe, does anyone have any suggestions?"

All the Department Heads exchanged glances but it was Ludo Bagman that spoke up "If we want something to show our power and standing in Europe then I suggest we bring back the Triwizard Tournament."

'_I can use the Triwizard Tournament to win a lot of gold and the goblins will be pleased…_' Bagman thought to himself.

The other Heads exchanged more looks but Fudge looked interested. '_The Triwizard Tournament? Now why didn't I think of that?'_

Amelia Bones now the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement shook her head and said "The Triwizard Tournament is too dangerous, that's the reason why it was discontinued. Besides preparing for a tournament that was discontinued for over 200 years is going to have to take time, gold, people and planning…"

Fudge held up a hand to stop her from continuing "Those are a small price to pay if it will bring back our status and power as a leader in Europe. As for the dangers we will just have to implement new rules and safety precautions." Fudge then smiled to the Department Heads and said "I want this new project implemented immediately and the Triwizard Tournament to be resurrected as quickly as possible. You are all dismissed."

The Department Heads then left the Ministers room to begin their planning for the resurrection of the Triwizard Tournament. One Head is especially gleeful but he made sure to hide it '_Now I just need to somehow convince the goblins to be patient enough to wait for the tournament's resurrection_' Ludo Bagman thought as he headed for his Department.

After the Department Heads have left the room, Fudge then turned towards Umbridge and said "Dolores I want you to write up letters that are to be sent to Dumbledore, France's Minister for Magic and Sweden's Minister for Magic immediately."

Umbridge nodded and then left the room to do her job leaving a delighted Fudge thinking to himself '_This is perfect! I will forever be remembered as the Minister that brought back the Legendary Triwizard Tournament!_''

XXXXX

**Night before Gryffindor ****vs Slytherin Headmaster's Room:**

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office and let out a deep sigh while rubbing his temple with both hands. Over the past week he has not had a good night's sleep ever since the Troll event, the reason for that is a new potential Dark Lord threat.

He has ordered for his staff to pay close attention to all 7 year students but mostly students from Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Why? Because in his mind Hufflepuff just doesn't produce good Dark Lords compared to the other houses. The house basically runs on loyalty and friendship but the trait that ousted Hufflepuff the most is fair play. Has there ever been a Dark Lord that values and believes in fair play? No not likely.

So the Headmaster is now focusing his entire attention to this Shadow Lord which he adequately named. The reason for this is due to the confusion that arises whenever someone says Dark Lord and no one knows which Dark Lord is being referred to.

But recently another issue arrived via a letter that just put even more burden for the old man to bear. Apparently the Minister for Magic came up with the ridiculous idea of reviving an ancient tournament that was discontinued for over 200 years! It just shows how incompetent this Minister for Magic really is! Now normally Dumbledore would have supported Fudge but with the Shadow Lord on the loose Dumbledore just doesn't have the time for something like this.

So Dumbledore wrote a letter to the Minister trying to get the Minister to reconsider but to Dumbledore's surprise and frustration, Fudge was adamant about reviving the tournament and just won't give up on the idea. Now Dumbledore is forced to track down the Shadow Lord and make preparations for the tournament.

This of course has lead to a massive headache for the age old Headmaster but luckily he still has his most favourite snack, lemon drops to brighten up his day. As he reached for one such snack he then noticed that the entire week was so stressful that he has ran out of them!

Almost immediately he called for one of the house-elves and not a second later a house-elf arrived with a crack. "What can Boppy do for master?" asked the elf.

Dumbledore looked at the elf with a smile said "Ah Boppy it's nice to see you again. I seem to have run out of lemon drops would you be so kind as to see to it that a new batch be made as soon as you can?"

The elf nodded happily and said "Boppy will go do that sir!"

Dumbledore then quickly said before the elf could disappear "Boppy wait!"

The elf then replied with "What else can Boppy do for master?"

Dumbledore then replied with a kind smile "I would also like you to go and inform Mr. Ronald Weasley that I would like to see him immediately. Make sure that he is alone before you inform him. The password is lemon drops."

The elf then said "Anything else master?"

Dumbledore then shook his head and said "No that is all you may go now." Not a second later there was a loud crack and Dumbledore was once again alone in his office.

XXXXX

**Slytherin ****Common Room:**

Draco Malfoy sat in a seat around a table with his lackeys Crabbe and Goyle discussing how McGonagall played favouritism and broke the school rules just to allow Harry Potter to play Quidditch.

"Potter thinks he's so special and now everyone is talking about how talented the half blood is! Well we'll see about that." Malfoy said with a sneer as he pulled out a tiny bottle containing a yellow liquid like substance. "Well boys what do you think is in this bottle?" Malfoy asked with a smirk.

Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other and shrugged.

Malfoy then said "Let me tell you a story. There was once a wizard that had everything he could ever have wanted: good looks, fortune, fame and a beautiful wife but that all changed one day when while on an expedition he unknowingly disturbed a very ancient Mackled Malaclaw." Malfoy then stopped and took a look at the confused Crabbe and Goyle before continuing on "That Malaclaw was very old and its poison is very potent and powerful. One bite, just one bite was all it was needed for that wizard to go from the top of the world to the bottom of the barrel. He lost everything: his fame, fortune and his wife eventually died due to working too hard trying to make a living. Now a normal Malaclaw would only give a person bad luck for about a week but this Malaclaw give him bad luck for a decade!" Malfoy said with glee. Malfoy then raised the bottle up to his eyes and said "It took awhile but father eventually found some of this poison from the ancient Malaclaw in the black market. Do you know how much this tiny bottle costs?"

Crabbe and Goyle responded with a shrug and Malfoy continued on "This bottle alone costs around ten Nimbus 2000's! And there is only enough for four drops! Now then the two of you might be asking 'what am I going to do with this correct?'"

This time Crabbe and Goyle gave a grunt as if saying yes. Malfoy then said with glee "Well I am not going to do anything. It is the two of you that is going to do something."

Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other and then at Malfoy as if asking: 'What?'

Malfoy then looked at his two lackeys with an evil smile and said "The two of you will be going down to the kitchens and once you are there look for a table that has a Gryffindor name on it. You will then empty this bottle into one of the bowls. I have noticed that every night there will be snacks prepared for the dormitory for any students that have to stay up late doing their homework. I have confirmed this with father himself when I wrote to him about what I have noticed. It seems that it is not just the Slytherins that have this luxury but all houses have it as well."

Crabbe then spoke up surprising Malfoy for a second as the smaller lackey barely spoke at all "But Draco, the poison might not reach Potter…"

Malfoy snapped out of his daze then shook his head and said "I know the chances of getting Potter is slim but even if we don't get Potter, having a bunch of bad luck Gryffindors isn't a bad trade whatsoever. With any luck we might nab someone from the Gryffindor team as well. Slytherins will win tomorrow!" Malfoy finished with a grin.

Crabbe and Goyle then joined Malfoy with small snickers before Malfoy stopped them "Now go." Malfoy said while handing the bottle of Ancient Malaclaw poison to Goyle. The two Slytherins then left the dormitory and started heading towards the kitchen.

XXXXX

**Hogwarts Kitchen:**

After arriving in the kitchen Boppy then went towards a house-elf and said "Candy the master has order for new lemon drops to be made."

"Yes Boppy!" said Candy the female house-elf.

With a nod and a crack later Boppy disappeared and Candy started for the ingredients.

XXXXX

**Fruit Portrait:**

Crabbe and Goyle soon reached a portrait of fruits and after checking for anyone nearby started tickling the pear of the portrait. Soon after the pear turned into a door knob and after turning the knob the portrait swung open and the two Slytherins walked through the doorway and into the kitchen.

Upon entering the kitchen the house-elves immediately rushed to their sides and started asking them what they wanted to eat. Having been in the kitchen before thanks to Malfoy showing them where it was located. The kitchen soon became the two Slytherins most favourite places to hang out. The house-elves would always rush to their side and then present them with almost anything they wanted to eat. It wasn't long before Crabbe soon forgot their mission and sat down on a table and started gorging down the food that the house-elves brought before him.

Goyle on the other hand soon found the Gryffindor table and was about to unload the contents of the bottle into a bowl when he heard Crabbe ordering doughnuts. Instantly his mind went blank and all he could think about was '_Mmm, doughnuts'. _

Candy that was in the process of making lemon drops immediately set down the bowl right in front of Goyle and dashed off happily to grab some doughnuts for the new arrivals. After a few moments Candy now carrying a tray full of doughnuts appeared and started towards Crabbe.

The smell of fresh doughnuts then snapped Goyle out of his doughnut induced delusion and he immediately emptied the contents of the bottle into the bowl that was in front of him and dashed off to join Crabbe in doughnut munching.

After setting down the tray of doughnuts Candy then happily went back towards the bowl of lemon drop mixture and continued on making the lemon drops for her master.

XXXXX

**Gryffindor ****Common Room:**

Boppy knew that his master needed to see Mr. Ronald Weasley right away and Boppy just couldn't wait any longer so he used his magic and put in a little something into Mr. Ronald Weasley's milk.

Not long Ron stood up and ran towards the boy's washroom and went towards the urinal. As Ron was halfway done his little deed there was a loud crack and a voice that said "Mr. Ronald Weasley the master wishes to see you."

Ron jumped and screamed "BLOODY HELL! WHAT IN THE BLAZES IS GOING ON?" while trying to hide his modesty.

Boppy winced at the boys voice and luckily he place a silencing charm in the boys washroom before 'convincing' Mr. Ronald Weasley to arrive here. Once again Boppy repeated "Mr. Ronald Weasley the master wishes to see you."

Ron blinked and then quickly pulled up his trousers and said "I'm sorry but what in Merlin's beard are you and who in bloody hell is the master."

Boppy replied "I am a house-elf and the master is the one who runs this school."

Ron then blinked some more before saying "So you're a house-elf, wasn't what I expected… wait did you say Professor Dumbledore wanted to see me?"

Boppy nodded and said "The master wishes to see Mr. Ronald Weasley right away. The password is lemon drops." And with that a loud crack was heard in the washroom leaving behind a bewildered Ron.

XXXXX

**Outside Dumbledore's office:**

After saying the password Ron started climbing the stairs while nervously thinking '_Why does Dumbledore want to see me? It's a little too early for our meeting… the meeting was supposed to be in December. Does… does he know that I have failed to befriend Potter? But… but that wasn't my fault! Others got to him first! Potter has distanced himself from me especially since Halloween. What… what should I do? Is… is he going to curse me?_'

As he reached the door to Dumbledore's office he heard a "Come in," thus indicating that it was alright to enter the room.

Dumbledore was sitting in his chair when Ron walked into the room he then smiled at Ron and said "Ah Mr. Weasley how nice it is to see you again. Please take a seat, I'm presuming you are well?"

Ron said nothing but nodded while looking everywhere trying to avoid the Headmasters gaze.

Dumbledore smiled some more and said "Well I'm sure that you are surprised that I have called you here today. You must want to know why you are here."

Ron now starting to sweat a little nodded his head but decided to remain silent. Dumbledore then continued "You see something recently has been brought to my attention. This news has made me very unhappy, yes very unhappy indeed…"

Ron now breaking into full blown sweat quickly tried to say "Pro… professor I can…"

Ron was then interrupted by a loud crack causing him to jump in his seat. A moment later did Ron realize that it was another house-elf this time female with a bowl in her hands. The elf then bowed and said happily "Candy has your lemon drops made master."

Dumbledore seemed delighted to hear this news and said "Ah very well done Candy. You may leave."

After placing the bowl of lemon drops on the desk, Candy once again bowed and with another loud crack she was gone.

Dumbledore then quickly grabbed a lemon drop and popped it into his mouth and said "Ah I have waited for quite a while for this… Hmm the taste seems a little different but overall this is still quite delicious. Care to try some Mr. Weasley?"

Ron shook his head and once again tried to say something when the Headmaster held up his hand and said "Mr. Weasley many things have sprung up and from now on I will be really busy." Dumbledore let out a deep sigh before continuing on "It is therefore with great regret that I will have to have Mr. Potter in your care…" Dumbledore then paused and seeing a confused Ron he continued "Yes I'm afraid that I won't be able to monitor Mr. Potter's activities any longer, in fact I haven't had the opportunity as of yet this year as a little something was thrown into my protection…" Dumbledore decided to let this sink in before speaking again "I will be very busy in the upcoming years therefore the responsibilities of Mr. Potter will be up to you and your family. I trust that you won't let me down Mr. Weasley?"

Ron now extremely confused managed to let out a "Huh?"

To Dumbledore the response that Ron gave sounded like Ron was unhappy so he quickly said "Of course you won't be doing any of this for free Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore then reached into his robes pocket and pulled out a bag. He then got up and grabbed one of Ron's hands and put the bag on it "This here is 300 galleons, this will cover what I had promised you for three years. That's 50 galleons per year and the other 150 are for your family. Now I won't take no for an answer, do you understand?" He said with a little conviction.

Ron who is now completely bewildered, dazed and the thought of holding 300 galleons going through his mind simply nodded and let out a tiny "Uh huh."

Dumbledore seeing Ron's response smiled and with a sigh of relief said "Good good, you may go now. Oh and be sure to grab some lemon drops they are simply scrumptious, I insist."

Ron still dazed used his free hand and grabbed a few lemon drops. After that he left the room with a bag full of galleons and a hand full of lemon drops.

Dumbledore after seeing Ron leaving sat back down onto his chair and said "With that done I can now put everything into searching for the Shadow Lord as well as preparing for the Triwizard Tournament." He then grabbed two more lemon drops and popped them into his mouth while closing his tired eyes.

XXXXX

**Outside Gryffindor Common Room:**

Somehow Ron managed to make it back towards the Gryffindor Common Room in his dazed state. He was then abruptly brought back to his senses by the Fat Lady asking for the password to the Common Room.

Ron then thought to himself '_Wow what just happened? Am I… am I dreaming?_' He then bit down on his lips and once he felt pain he smiled and knew that it was all real. The galleons and even the lemon drops are all real! He then started chuckling '_Heh heh heh am I the luckiest person or what?_' Ron then looked down at both his hands and immediately pocketed the bag of gold and after saying the password; he then popped all the lemon drops into his mouth all the while thinking '_Can life be any better?_'

XXXXX

**Gryffindor vs Slytherin match:**

The crowd watched as the two teams' battle it out on the Quidditch pitch. Slytherin is currently ahead of the Gryffindor team by quite a few points. As Harry saw the snitch he then began to put a burst of speed on his broom but was then surprised when his broom refused to do what he wanted.

Meanwhile on the stand Hermione all of a sudden started feeling fear and insecurities and soon realized that what she was feeling are Harry's emotions. She then quickly said to the others "Harry's in trouble."

This alarmed the group of friends with Tonks saying "What? Are you sure?" She then gazed up at Harry and just saw him floating up there in the sky. "He seems alright to me…"

Hermione then viscously shook her head "NO! He is not fine. I don't know how I know, I just know alright!" She then looked up at Harry and said "It's like I can feel him…"

This caused a shocked expression from Neville, Susan and Hannah who then exchanged nervous glances. Then all of a sudden the crowd gave a loud gasp and the group of friends looked up to see Harry dangling off his broom with the broom jerking around wildly.

On the Slytherin side of the stands three Slytherins looked on with a big smile upon their faces.

The friends then looked scared and worry expressions appeared on each of them. Tonks being the most experienced of the group then quickly came to a conclusion "Harry's broom is being cursed! He can't control it! Someone here must be cursing him! Quick, look around and see if anyone looks like they are chanting something!"

With that the group of friends started scanning the stands for anyone who might be chanting up a storm. Something eventually caught Neville's eyes "Look over there, Snape and Quirrell!"

Tonks and Hermione then focused on where Neville pointed and indeed they noticed that both Snape and Quirrell looks like they are chanting up a storm. Without a moment to waste both girls then dashed towards the two Professors who are focused entirely on Harry.

Tonks then quickly but softly said to Hermione "You get Snape and I'll deal with Quirrell."

Hermione quickly nodded and went towards Snape. Surprisingly both girls reached their targets at roughly the same time and both pulled out their wands and quickly casted a fire spell causing both Professors robes to catch fire. With their jobs done the girls quickly retreated but Quirrell caught a glimpse of pink retreating hair.

After when the girls returned to their seats they just managed to catch Harry spitting out the Golden Snitch into his hands causing the Gryffindors to burst out into loud cheers.

On the Slytherins stand loud boos were heard all over and Draco Malfoy looked ready to kill with his face as red as a tomato in anger. Crabbe and Goyle gulped nervously as they each exchanged glances.

XXXXX

**After the game:**

After coming out of the changing rooms Harry was surrounded by his friends but with a shake of his head he said "I'm tired. We'll talk tomorrow after classes."

XXXXX

**Slytherin Common Room:**

A pissed off Draco Malfoy paced around their table and finally stopped to ask "Crabbe, Goyle did you or did you not put the Malaclaw poison in any of the Gryffindors snacks?"

Goyle quickly nodded and said "Yes."

Malfoy then took a deep breath and said "Then why did we lose the game!"

Crabbe and Goyle then shrugged.

This action caused Malfoy to grab some of the snacks on the table and hurled it into the fire place causing the fire to expand slightly before returning to its original size.

XXXXX

**One day later**** in an empty classroom:**

After classes the friends gathered around in the Great Hall and they all followed Tonks towards an empty classroom.

"Alright I think its time we figure out what's been going on in this school." Harry said with a firm conviction.

"Harry what do you mean?" asked a nervous Hermione.

"What do I mean? Hermione I was nearly killed yesterday!" Harry shouted at Hermione.

"Harry you need to calm down." Tonks said while placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. After when Harry has calmed down Tonks then said "Harry's right something is going on in this school and I'm not liking it."

"What do you mean Tonks?" asked Susan.

Tonks then said with a sigh "Well the first thing is that the third floor corridor is forbidden. That hasn't happened during any of my years of Hogwarts except this one. Then we find out that there is a Cerberus guarding some kind of trap door. Then there is a break in by Mountain Trolls on Halloween and now Harry was almost murdered. None of these have ever happened before and for some strange reason, they are now all happening this year…"

After hearing what Tonks had said Harry then pondered "I wonder if all these events are related?"

"How can all these events be related to each other?" asked Hannah.

"No I'm almost positive that all these are indeed related." Harry said after a while.

Hermione then grabbed some parchment from her robes and pulled out a quill and some ink. This causes several raised eyebrows and Hermione retorted with "What? I just want to always be prepared alright!"

Neville nodded and said "Alright but what are you doing Hermione?"

Hermione then smiled and said "I'm going to solve these cases using the muggle approach. Heh heh heh in fact I'm a little excited since I'm finally going to get to use some of the techniques Sherlock Holmes taught me." Hermione then looked at the group and noticed everyone having confused looks she then began to explain "Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective that is famous for solving mysteries. I've read all the books. I'm shocked Harry that you have never heard of Sherlock Holmes before."

Harry sighed and said "Hermione the Dursleys have never bought me anything. Everything I have is hand-me-downs from Dudley when he doesn't want those things anymore. In fact all my clothes are once Dudley's. And Dudley isn't a book person so I have basically no books. And you can bet that it will be the end of the world when the Dursleys buy me a book. My school supplies came from a trust vault that my parents left me."

Hermione nodded and said "When solving a case you must answer the following questions: Who, What, Why, When and How. The 'Who' represents the people that are involved. The 'What' represents the event itself. The 'Why' represents the motive behind the people or event. The 'When' represents the time and place of the event. And finally the 'How' represents how the events happened and so on. Do you all understand?" After seeing everyone nod Hermione then wrote down the mysteries in separate sheets.

Tonks then looked at the first sheet while taking the quill and said "Alright first mystery is The Forbidden Corridor and the Trap door. The 'Who' is the schools staff. The 'What' is that the third floor corridor is forbidden. The 'Why' could be something or someone that is down the trap door that is being protected. The 'When' is during this year and at Hogwarts. The 'How' is by a Cerberus guarding a trap door." While writing down all these points on the parchment as she went on.

Everyone then nodded their heads signifying that they all agree.

Hermione then pulled out the second parchment while grabbing the quill from Tonks and started her analysis "Break in by Mountain Trolls. The 'Who' well we don't really know…

"Wait Hermione…" Harry interrupted drawing everyone's attention towards him. "Remember the night after Quidditch practice when I found you reading **Hogwarts, a History**? Well didn't you tell me that Hogwarts is being protected by powerful magic and wards? If that is true then someone who can enter and leave Hogwarts at will, must have manipulated the wards to allow Mountain Trolls into Hogwarts…"

"Maybe the Trolls came from the Forbidden Forest?" offered Susan.

"No, these are Mountain Trolls not Forest Trolls." Harry replied.

"How do you know?" asked Hannah.

"Because I looked them up after I was attacked. The difference between Mountain Trolls and Forest Trolls is that Mountain Trolls are bald with pale skin while Forest Trolls have messy green hair with green skin." Hermione said.

Harry nodded and said "Yes, so if we assume that manipulating wards requires vast knowledge then the only people that meet the requirements of freely entering and leaving Hogwarts as well as having the knowledge of manipulating wards are…"

"The Professors!" everyone exclaimed at the same time.

"Alright we got the 'Who' but which one of the Professors do you guys think is responsible?" asked Hannah as she pondered her own question.

"Well obviously it can't be Professor Quirrell because he's the one who informed the school of the Trolls." Susan stated confidently.

"Not necessarily…" Hermione replied "According to muggle psychology the study of human minds and behaviour; whenever a culprit does a crime the first thing they do is to try and run or try to draw attention away from themselves. One of the ways to draw attention away from themselves is to be the first person to alert the authorities. They think that since they alerted the authorities themselves the authorities wouldn't suspect them just like how Susan came to the conclusion that Quirrell must be innocent."

"Wow that's deep…" said Susan as she blushed in embarrassment from jumping to conclusions.

"Yeah maybe Muggle Studies isn't a bad subject after all…" pondered Hannah.

"So yes, Quirrell isn't off the hook yet. In fact muggle authorities would probably suspect Quirrell the most." Hermione said with pride.

"It can't be Quirrell…" Harry said making everyone turn towards him "Quirrell's incompetent! He's one of the worst instructors that I have ever witnessed!"

"Maybe it was all an act?" suggested Neville.

"No ones that good of an actor. He genuinely can't accomplish something like ward manipulation. Even if Quirrell is involved I would think that he is working for someone that has a vast amount of knowledge or experience." Harry said not budging one bit.

Everyone else then looked at each other and shrugged. "Alright let's move on." Tonks offered as she turned her attention back to Hermione.

Hermione then nodded and continued "The 'What' are the Trolls getting in Hogwarts. The 'Why' is currently unknown. The 'When' is during Halloween in the dungeons. The 'How' is by a Professor manipulating Hogwarts wards." After seeing everyone nod their heads in approval Hermione smiled feeling quite proud of herself.

Harry then took the last piece of parchment and the quill that Hermione handed over to him and began his case "Attempted Murder of Harry Potter…"

Tonks seeing Harry's hands shaking quickly said "Harry are you alright? Maybe someone else should…"

Harry then looked up at Tonks and shook his head "No, I want to find out who's trying to do me in…" Harry then looked over at the others and saw worried looks all around, he then smiled and said "Come on let's find this person and put a stop to it before I really end up dying the next time alright?"

Hermione then shot Harry a look "Harry! This isn't a time for joking alright!" She shouted out with tears in her eyes.

Harry was shocked as this wasn't what he had expected "I'm sorry everyone, I didn't mean to…"

Hannah then expected Tonks to lighten the mood but was surprised to see a sad expression on Tonks's face. She then quickly said "Ok everyone lets continue on. We all want to find this person and stop him from doing anymore harm."

Everyone then nodded but this time Neville grabbed the parchment and the quill from Harry and started doing the analysis "The 'Who' is either Snape or Quirrell or both…"

This time Hannah interrupted "So Harry do you still think that Quirrell is innocent?"

Harry then glared at Hannah and said "I never said that Quirrel is innocent! I just said that he's incompetent and that he might be working for someone who is more capable."

Tonks then decided to speak up "Alright, alright settle down. But this does confirm one thing and that is Quirrell is now involved in two of the cases."

Neville then continued on "The 'What' is Harry's attempted murder. The 'Why' is unknown."

Susan then chose this time to speak up "Harry did you do anything to either Snape or Quirrell that might make them want to do you in?"

Harry rolled his eyes and said "Well Snape hated me since the first day of classes for no reason at all. As for Quirrell I don't think I've ever done anything to him that warrants death…"

Susan then pondered "Well that's weird, you must have done something. I mean people don't kill for no reason unless they are crazy."

Hermione then said "Yes, Harry think. Did you see or hear something that you shouldn't have?"

Harry under the urges by everyone began thinking. Something that might have created a motive for either Snape or Quirrell to kill him. Harry then recalled how Tonks said strange things are happening this year. Harry recalled how he knew he was a wizard, how he met Hagrid. How Hagrid showed him Gringotts. How weird the wizarding bank was. How Hagrid grabbed something from a vault. How he found out that he has money to buy books for himself. Harry recalled Hagrid telling him about Gringotts and Hogwarts are the best places to keep things safe. When the first time he met Quirrell at Diagon Alley. When the first time he met Snape… and then it clicked.

Harry immediately turn to Hermione "Hermione can you get me another parchment?"

Hermione looked confused but pulled out another parchment from her robes and handed it over to Harry. Harry then place the parchment on the table and grabbed the quill from Neville and started a new analysis "We all over looked another major event that happened this year…" Harry looked around and seeing confused faces continued "The Break In of Gringotts Bank."

Susan then asked "What does the Break In of Gringotts have to do with anything?"

Harry smiled excitedly and said "You'll see. Hagrid once told me that if you want to keep anything safe then Gringotts is your best choice but there is another place that is even safer than Gringotts and that is Hogwarts. Hermione confirmed that statement when she read **Hogwarts, a History**. Now this might be a coincidence but the day that Gringotts was broken into was exactly the same day Hagrid and I visited Gringotts. I of course withdrawn some gold for my school supplies but Hagrid only withdrawn a small package wrapped in a brown paper. That package was placed inside a high security vault…"

Hermione was thinking rapidly over what Harry has just informed them, she then looked up at Harry with wide eyes. "Do you think that that package was what the robber was trying to steal?"

Neville then said "Assuming that that is true and that Hagrid took that package… then the only place to store that package safely is…"

"Hogwarts!" everyone said at the same time.

Tonks then grabbed the quill from Harry and started writing down 'secret package' under the 'Why' of the Forbidden Corridor parchment.

"So the whole reason for the third floor corridor being forbidden and a Cerberus guarding a trap door was to protect some kind of package?" Hannah asked bewildered.

Susan nodded and said "Ok that's one case almost solved but we still don't know who and why someone is trying to kill Harry…"

Harry then smiled at Susan and said "I was getting to that. You see on the day that Hagrid and I visited Gringotts we ran into a certain someone…"

"Who?" asked Hermione, Susan and Hannah excitedly not willing to take the suspense any longer.

Harry only replied with "Quirrell…"

This news shocked everyone but Harry, but it was Tonks who spoke up "What? Harry you don't think…"

Harry nodded and said "It makes perfect sense. The day of the Gringotts break in is the day Hagrid and I happen to run into Quirrell. Then not long after Quirrell took up teaching at Hogwarts which is the only place safer then Gringotts to protect something."

"So… so you're saying that Quirrell tried to kill you because you are a witness to that day's event. Oh Merlin!" said a panicked Hannah.

"Yes, but unfortunately that also means that Hagrid is also in danger." Harry said with a grim expression.

Hannah then said "Ah ha! Then that means Quirrell really is the one behind all the mysteries. What do you have to say to that Harry?"

Harry then smiled weakly "Yes Quirrell is responsible but the news also supports my theory on a mystery man behind Quirrell's actions…"

"Why do you say that?" asked a confused Hannah.

"Because breaking into Gringotts is considered suicidal. Only those witches or wizards with vast amount of power or experience can do something like that. Quirrell not only succeeded into breaking in but also managed to get out undetected with no trace leading to him whatsoever. It was only due to sheer luck that he ran into Hagrid and me thus allowing us to connect everything to him…"

Neville then said "I think that the Halloween event was indeed set up by Quirrell…"

Harry nodded and said "Yes."

Susan then asked "Why?"

Hermione then grabbed the quill from Tonks and turned towards her parchment and said "The Trolls was only supposed to be a distraction; their purpose was to attract attention away from Quirrell so that he can steal the package on the third floor corridor. Well that now explains the 'Why' for this case." Hermione also filled in Quirrell's name under the 'How' portion of the parchment.

"But… but Quirrell's still here isn't he?" asked Susan.

Tonks then nodded "Yes, and that can only mean one thing. He failed to get the package. I guess not even the mystery man knows how to get past a three headed hound." Tonks said while smirking.

Neville then grabbed the quill from Hermione and started filling in the 'When' and the 'How' for the Attempted Murder parchment.

After when Neville was finished Harry then spoke up "Ok we've basically figured everything out. The only things we still don't know are what the package contains that Quirrell and the mystery man wants. The second thing we don't know is who exactly this mystery man is."

Tonks then said "We need to figure out what our next course of action is. Should we tell any of the Professors? Should we warn Hagrid of the danger and how can we stop Quirrell and the mystery man."

Neville then spoke up "We can't tell any of the Professors just yet. We don't have any evidence and all the things we've just figured out is based on assumptions. It will be our word against Quirrell's who is a Professor. If we tell the Professors and they don't believe us, then we just alerted Quirrell of what we know thus putting us in even more danger."

"Ok but what about Hagrid?' Harry asked worriedly.

Tonks shook her head "No, telling Hagrid is no different then telling the Professors. Knowing Hagrid he might even confront Quirrell of these accusations and that can be very bad."

"So are we just going to leave Hagrid being blind and not knowing that a killer might be after him?" asked a frustrated Harry.

"For right now Quirrell seems more focused on you. So in Quirrell's point of view you are more threatening to him than Hagrid is. Hagrid should be safe for now." Neville replied with a frown.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Susan.

"We are going to pretend that we still don't know what's going on. From today onwards none of us should be traveling alone from now on." Tonks said.

Harry then looked at Tonks with concern "Tonks the one I'm worried about the most is you."

"Heh you don't need to worry about me, after all I am 6 years ahead of you lot."

Hermione then realized that is now dark outside and said "Alright I think we should go now. I don't think I would want to run into Quirrell anytime soon."

As everyone stood up Tonks quickly said "Everyone hand over your parchments."

Harry, Hermione and Neville exchanged glances and handed over their parchment of mysteries. Tonks then took out her wand and casted a charm over each parchment vanishing all traces of ink. She then looked up and saw several confused faces and said "I've casted a charm that makes the ink disappear from these parchments whenever we're not using them. If anyone picks up these parchments it will just be a blank parchment to them. We don't want just anyone reading these parchments now do we?"

After when everyone shook their heads Hermione then spoke out "Could I hold on to those?"

Tonks smiled and handed over the parchments making Hermione thrilled "Oh I've always wanted my own set of mysteries!"

After when Hermione pocketed the parchments the three Gryffindors and the three Hufflepuffs then left the room returning to their respective dormitories.

AN: Sorry for the long update. Writing this chapter took a lot out of me.


	5. Chapter 4

AN: Hi everyone Happy New Year! Anyways thank you to all reviewers, your pointers and reminders are appreciated. I have also decided to stop using headings as they are annoying to me. I just hope that my writing skills have improved enough for me to no longer need them. So here's the next chapter enjoy!

Chapter 4:

Somewhere deep within Knockturn Alley where the more shady businesses are conducted and usually where people sells illegal things through the Black Market. A squat balding man with bandy legs was seen selling things that he had stolen from homes and other places that he had ransacked.

As of this year his employer had told him to keep a low profile due to the re-emergence of the Boy Who Lived into the magical world. Because of this and his problems concerning tobacco and alcohol he was soon out of money.

Unfortunately for him the things that he had stolen wasn't worth much and soon out of desperation he started pulling out photos that he had secretly taken from these past ten years. A majority of those photos were given to his employer but Mundungus Fletcher was no fool. He knew just how much these valuable photos were worth, after all the photos are about the most famous boy in the magic world.

Smiling to himself after successfully selling a photo of a two year old Harry Potter to some rich witch who then went off squealing in joy. He decided it was time to go for a drink at the local pub so he gathered his things and left his stall.

Not long after he was soon ambushed by a group of wizards who then hit him with the stunning spell and the last thing he saw before darkness was the group advancing towards him.

XXXXX

Mundungus Fletcher was soon awakened by a splash of water to his face. Instincts kicked in when he found himself in a dark room and immediately he tried to run but soon found out he was unable to as he was tied to a chair. He then nervously looked around only to find a group staring at him. Due to the darkness he was unable to see their faces but not long a man's voice was soon heard through the darkness.

"Mundungus Fletcher…"

"Please let me go… I'll do anything, just don't hurt me!"

"Now we need you to tell us something. We need information and you are going to provide it for us."

"Any… anything just don't hurt me."

"Good… now tell us how and where you got these photos of Harry Potter…"

XXXXX

Over the course of the month after solving those mysteries the gang tried many things to prevent Quirrel from harming Harry and Hagrid. Things like never allowing Harry to go anywhere alone and frequently visiting Hagrid whenever they could much to the delight of the half giant.

Turns out Hagrid was very lonely and doesn't seem to have any friends or visitors other than them. Most people tend to avoid him or are scared of him due to his size and the gang knew Hagrid is a very intimidating man. It is due to this reason that he took interests in beasts and monsters as companions instead of humans.

According to him the beasts tend to be drawn to him more than the other humans and that they find him cute and they can be quite affectionate with their love bites and such. Of course the group could only nervously smile when he told them that, no one had the heart to tell him that the beasts probably just view him as a huge chunk of meat.

Another thing that the group tried doing was spying and trailing Quirrel hoping to find any evidence that they can use to alert the Professors or Susan's aunt who turns out to be Amelia Bones the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

At first they decided to split into two groups of three who will then take turns trailing Quirrel but soon they found out that Harry can't stay near Quirrel for too long as Harry's scar will then start to burn causing Harry immense pain. They didn't know why at first but after coming up with many theories and such Hermione proposed that Harry's magic must be reacting to Quirrel alerting him of the danger. At first the idea was brushed off but as Harry's scar started burning whenever Quirrel's around they began to take the idea more seriously. When asked how she came up with the idea, Hermione then began telling them of a comic book superhero called Spiderman that had an uncanny ability to sense danger called the Spider Sense.

After accepting that as a possible answer they then wondered why Harry's ability to sense danger didn't activate at the beginning of the year whenever Harry was around Quirrel. Tonks then came up with the idea that Quirrel must have become more agitated from failing to steal the package on Halloween as well as failing to kill Harry, therefore leaking more bloodlust thus making Harry's Spider Sense tingling off the charts.

So Harry was soon forced to stop trailing Quirrel and therefore leaving the others to do the job. But after awhile problems soon arose like portraits trying to get them into a chat or ghosts popping out of nowhere and asking what they were doing. Worst was when they ran into Peeves who then caused a ruckus nearly alerting Quirrel to what they were doing and so they were soon forced to stop trailing Quirrel altogether.

So with that plan failing miserably everyone then focused more on their studies and with Hermione and Tonks's help; the quality of their performances sky rocketed much to the shock and delight of the professors. Well all but Snape the Potions Professor. Turns out that as Harry's performances increased so did Snape's torment on Harry.

"Well Mr. Potter it looks like your performance lately was due to pure luck after all…" Snape sneered as he looked at Harry's attempt at the newest assignment. The potion wasn't the exact color that it was suppose to be but it was close, unfortunately the potion was a failure in Snape's eyes. With a sigh Snape continued "That's ten points from Gryffindor for raising the little hope that I had left in you."

In the background the Slytherins was snickering and Malfoy looked on in glee. Snape of course chose to ignore them.

"But sir the potion…" Harry tried to say.

"That's another ten points from Gryffindor! Mr. Potter, are you challenging my authority?" Snape said with a glare at Harry.

Harry with clenched fists and grinding teeth managed a "No sir."

XXXXX

As the days went on Potions were getting increasingly difficult for Harry to bear to the point that Harry was convinced that Snape must be the mystery man behind Quirrel.

"I swear Snape is the mystery man! The guy hates me with a passion, other than Quirrel he's the only one that would want to do me in!" shouted a frustrated Harry.

"Harry I think you're being a little bit biased… Snape's a Professor he wouldn't…" Hermione tried to reason.

"Earth to Hermione, Quirrel's a Professor and he has no qualms with killing students." Harry said as he glared at Hermione causing her to flinch.

"Yes Hermione, you need to stop thinking that Professors are perfect because they are not…" Tonks said as she shook her head "And Harry you need to calm down because Snape is not the mystery man."

"What? How do you know?"

"Because your Spider Sense or Danger Sense or whatever it is isn't going off when you are near Snape." Tonks said.

"But, but… aww man…" Harry whined because he wanted a reason to kick Snape out of the school when they get Quirrel. He had hoped that Snape and Quirrel would be connected with this thus he could get rid of both Professors at once.

"But didn't Snape also looked like he was cursing Harry during the Quidditch match?" asked Susan.

This raised Harry's hopes up "Yeah she's right!" Harry said as he gave an appreciated look at Susan.

Hannah then shook her head "No, it wouldn't make any sense if Snape is the mystery man because Snape has been here teaching for a decade and he couldn't have known about the package being transferred here when he applied for the job, unless he's a seer."

Harry shoulders then sagged but once again Susan asked "But then what did Snape do at the match?"

"We don't know and we probably won't ever know." Neville said with a shrug and a frown as he too hate Snape because of the way the Professor picked on him in Potion classes.

"Well… one thing is for sure…" said Harry drawing everyone's attention back onto him "Snape's a jackass." Harry smirked causing everyone but Neville to sweat drop. Neville on the other hand was nodding furiously in agreement.

XXXXX

As the month went by snow soon covered the grounds therefore marking the beginning of December and students were then seen discussing what they would do for the holidays.

The gang then started talking about what they would do for the upcoming holidays thus temporarily putting Quirrel out of their mind for the first time in weeks. Susan and Hannah told them that they would be celebrating Christmas and New Years together. Neville would then tell them about his family gatherings during Christmas and how festive his house would be during this time of the year. Meanwhile Hermione would be going home for Christmas as her parents missed her dearly. Tonks would also be going home for Christmas and she was quite delighted as well. She said this Christmas is a very special Christmas and that she can't wait until then.

Harry opted to remain silent not wanting to ruin the good mood everyone was in. Seeing everyone smile for the first time in weeks made him happy since it was due to him that everyone was worried.

XXXXX

Finally the week when McGonagall would show up to take names of those students staying at Hogwarts over Christmas arrived. Harry was sure that he would be the first one to sign that list as no way in hell would he be going back to the Dursleys for Christmas.

Sure he would feel lonely especially since he would be the only one in the Common room as even the Weasleys are going back for Christmas. He had hoped that he could hangout with the twins when he heard them say that they were going to stay for Christmas. Their parents were going to visit one of their brothers Charlie in Romania, but something happened and their parents weren't able to go. With that change in plans their mother demanded them to return for Christmas and so with an apology they wished him good luck.

After classes one day Tonks unexpectedly came up to him and with a big smile on her face said "Wotcha Harry!"

"Hi Tonks," Harry replied with a smile.

"Harry I got something to ask you."

Harry with a confused faced asked "What is it Tonks?"

"Harry… would you like to spend Christmas with me and my family?" Tonks asked nervously.

Harry's eyes widened as his body froze in shock "What?"

"Would you like to spend Christmas with me and my family?" Tonks repeated.

"Are, are you sure it's alright? I, I wouldn't want to intrude…"

"Nonsense I'm inviting you aren't I?" Tonks said with a smile.

"I'm not dreaming am I?" asked Harry.

"No you are not dreaming. I really want to you to spend Christmas with me… unless you don't want to…" Tonks said as she looked down towards the ground.

"NO! That's not what I meant! I would love to spend Christmas with you and your family. It's just what did your parents say?" Harry said as he tried to get his point across.

Tonks then looked up with another smile "Mum wants to see you again and Dad wants to meet you."

Harry then smiled and soon he found himself hugging Tonks with tears in his eyes. Tonks originally shocked by the embraced soon smiled and returned the hug.

"Thank you Tonks, thank you…" Harry said as he released Tonks from the hug.

"No need I really want to spend more time with you. After all you are my first real friend… Besides I wouldn't want to leave you here alone with Quirrel now do I?"

"No, no I guess you don't. Oh I can't wait to tell the others that I would be spending Christmas with you!" Harry said happily.

"Um… Harry they already knew…" Tonks said as she looked away with a playful smile.

"What?" Harry replied as his eyes widened in realization.

XXXXX

Soon the last day of classes arrived and everyone was excited because they could finally see their family again and celebrate the holidays. After visiting Hagrid for the last time and wishing him a happy holidays the gang boarded the Hogwarts Express ready to go back home.

It was an uneventful trip where the gang decided to relax and enjoy the scenery as the Express traveled through the countryside. About half way through the boys had to leave the compartment so that the girls can change into muggle clothing while the boys went into another compartment so that they could change as well.

Soon the train arrived at Platform 9 and 3/4's. Neville, Susan and Hannah then said their goodbyes and holiday wishes before joining up with their family. After a while Tonks spotted her parents and nudged Harry while pointing towards a certain direction. Harry and Tonks then said their goodbyes to Hermione and after watching her go through the barrier they then went towards Tonks's parents.

Harry was starting to feel a little nervous as Tonks lead him towards her parents. He had met Mrs. Tonks before and she was a nice person, this Harry can tell. But he wasn't sure if Mr. Tonks would be the same. His experiences with the Dursleys especially his uncle Vernon, Snape and Quirrel have left a bitter taste and he found himself less trustful towards adult men then women, except for Hagrid who would always smile whenever he saw Harry.

As they made their way through the crowd Harry saw smiling faces greeting them. Mrs. Tonks looked as stunning as he last saw her with her noble aura radiating around. Mr. Tonks was wearing a very nice suit, he had fair-hair and a big belly but what strike Harry most was his voice when he addressed his daughter.

"Hey Dora, how's my little pumpkin," Mr. Tonks said as he beamed at his daughter with pride. His voice was very pleasant; different than Dumbledore's whose voice seemed unnatural. It was different to Vernon's voice which was always full of anger and rage while Snape's voice carried malice and hatred.

"Dad, I am 17 for god sakes!" Tonks said with a little red on her face feeling quite embarrassed in front of Harry. Harry on the other hand couldn't help but chuckle at Tonks's predicament.

Andromeda after seeing Harry laugh, smiled and said "Why hello there Harry, how are you?"

Harry then bowed and said "I'm doing very well Mrs. Tonks. Tonks has been taking very good care of me, how are you?"

"Why I am doing very well myself. Let me introduce my husband Ted Tonks."

Ted then turned towards Harry and while extending his hands out he said "Wotcha we have here, you must be Harry. Tonks have told us much about you in her letters."

Harry turned towards Tonks with wide eyes before turning back to face Ted "It's very nice to meet you Mr. Tonks." Harry said while shaking Ted's hand.

"It's getting late so I think we should be going now." Andromeda said as she gestured towards the barrier.

After reaching the parking lot and putting in Harry and Tonks's bags into the car's trunk. Harry and the Tonks's were on there way back towards Tonks's house. The chat in the car was quite refreshing for Harry as this is the first time where he wasn't either ignored or being glared at. The Tonks's would ask how he was doing on his subjects and how he thought of Hogwarts. To which Harry happily replied that he thinks Hogwarts is simply amazing.

Harry also told them of how Hermione and Tonks helped him through things he didn't understand and how bad of an instructor Snape is. Harry was surprised and delighted when Ted agreed with his statements of the greasy haired Professor.

When they had reached the house, Harry was surprised yet again when he saw that this house was even bigger than the Dursleys. There are portraits of the family hanging on the walls, and expensive china's sitting on cabinets that would make aunt Petunia seethe with jealousy. Overall the Tonks's are quite well off.

"It isn't much when you compare it to families like the Malfoys." Ted said as he saw the look on Harry's face.

"It's enough, I doubt the Malfoys house would be this welcoming and having this warm family atmosphere."

Andromeda smiled at Harry and said "Thank you Harry."

Tonks then showed Harry his room and after unpacking his bags Harry then went back downstairs towards the kitchen where Andromeda is making dinner.

"Is there anything I could help with Mrs. Tonks?" Harry asked as he entered the kitchen.

"No Harry you should go back to the living room and watch some television with Ted." Andromeda said as she shook her head and gestured towards the living room.

"Its fine Mrs. Tonks, I kind of learned to cook at a young age…"

Andromeda then frowned before asking "At what age exactly?"

"I think it was when I was about 5 years old…" Harry said sadly not wanting to be reminded of how the Dursleys would find ways to punish him and not feeding him is one of the frequent punishments.

Andromeda studied Harry for a few moments before replying "Alright Harry, would you mind washing and cutting the vegetables?"

Harry nodded happily as he began working on the vegetables. Secretly Harry wants to help out as much as possible as he is very grateful to the Tonks's for inviting him over for the holidays. He just wants to repay them for their kindness which to Harry is a very rare thing.

After dinner Harry and the Tonks's then went into the living room and started watching movies. Harry was very confused when almost all the movies are muggle movies and there was nothing magical in the devices which intrigued Harry considerably as the Tonks's are a magical family.

"Why are we watching muggle movies?" Harry asked.

"Because I'm Muggle-born, didn't Dora tell you that?" Ted questioned as he turned towards his daughter.

Harry seeing Tonks look uncomfortable reacted quickly "Er… yes… yes she did, I kind of forgot. I thought that magic and technology cannot coexist, I mean I don't see anybody using technology in Hogwarts or Diagon Alley…" Harry questioned.

"Oh that's very wrong; it's a common misconception that magic and technology cannot coexist because people just don't see them together at the same time and place. There are reasons for that but the two biggest reasons are the fact that muggles don't believe in magic and vehemently denies its existence. While witches and wizards just don't understand technology, there are some that would even degrade technology and its usefulness like most Pure Bloods… except for you dear…" Ted quickly corrected while giving his wife a peck on the cheeks.

Harry nodded and said "Yeah I can see that. The Dursleys and the Malfoys are perfect examples."

Ted nodded with a frown "Yes, it's very unfortunate as technology and magic combined can bring wonders. Technology can do things that magic cannot like sending people into space while magic can protect the technology from dangers in space as well as bring supplies to the astronauts. You have seen food appearing out of nowhere from the tables right? Well food cannot be transfigured with magic but they can be transported and that's how food magically appears at the tables. They are transported from the schools kitchen to the great hall."

Ted then turned to face the television before continuing "If magic does cause technology to malfunction like most believe then it is essentially impossible for muggles to have technology in the first place because magic is everywhere. The difference between muggles and magical people are how they connect with nature, magical people are more in tuned with nature than muggles thus allowing them to see, hear, feel and use magic. It is due to this reason that muggles can give birth to magical people while magical people can give birth to people known as squibs."

Harry nodded in understanding and looked towards Ted with a smile "And Muggle-borns have the best of both worlds."

Ted then looked back to Harry with a smile of his own "We definitely have an advantage."

'_I bet Hermione will be ecstatic when she finds out._' Harry mused.

XXXXX

Albus Dumbledore relaxed into his chair as he let out a deep sigh of relief. He was finally able to relax a bit after going through all that chaos in the last two months. The Triwizard Tournament plans are finally on its way and the meetings he had with the other countries Ministers, Headmaster's and Headmistresses' have gone on smoothly. Sure there were a few arguments here and there about which schools should host the Tournament and the safety precautions that were brought up. But overall the meetings were quite successful.

Unfortunately there are still no signs of the Shadow Lord or who the Shadow Lord could be. But Dumbledore isn't going to let that get in the way of his high spirits because after all it is the Christmas holidays!

Dumbledore then remembered something he hasn't done in a really long time and so he got up and started toward a chest. Opening the chest he pulled out a silvery cloth and went back towards his desk. Laying the cloth on his desk he started running his hands down the cloth carefully examining its details and the magic it holds.

"For ten years I have examined the Cloak of Invisibility and I have yet to unlock its secrets. How is it that something so simple is at the same time so powerful? I have tried to reproduce it or clone it but none of the results are the same! Just what magic was used to create such elegance? Will I ever unlock its secrets? Am I not worthy? No I have sacrificed too much for the cloak to reject me! I have lost my dear sister Ariana and have made my only brother hate me! My best friend left me when I needed him the most… I have lost everything. I will not allow you to reject me!"

Pulling out his wand and setting it right beside the cloak, he then sat back down onto his chair and glance at both objects with admiration. He was so focused on the objects that he did not notice someone coming into the room.

"Albus the Christmas decorations have all gone up. You look tired; you really should take a rest once in a while you know. I know the Tournament has taken its toll on you but it won't do you any good to worry over it." McGonagall said as she saw the Headmasters tired looking face. Her attention was then drawn towards the silvery cloth on the table "Oh my, is that what I think it is? Isn't that James Potter's invisibility cloak? It is! Lily showed it to me once; boy was I shocked when I found out that that is how James and Sirius got around the castle undetected…" McGonagall mused.

"Hmm?" was Dumbledore's only answer while not looking away from the two legendary objects.

"Albus, is that what you are doing? That is so wonderful, giving young Harry his father's heirloom for Christmas. Harry will be so thrilled when he sees this!" McGonagall exclaimed as she grabbed the cloak. She then proceeded towards the door with the cloak "You don't need to worry Albus I will get this sent to Harry right away! Knowing you, you probably don't want him to know that it's from you. I know the perfect thing to write! This is such a wonderful idea!" With that said she was gone.

It took Dumbledore a couple of seconds to register what just transpired in his office and with wide eyes he rushed towards his door. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, he was in such a rush that he tripped over his own feet and fell down the stairway. It would be another 30 minutes later until McGonagall came back from the Owlery after sending the cloak to Harry to find Dumbledore at the bottom of the stairs with arms, legs and back being twisted at impossible angles. After inspecting the Headmasters injuries; Madam Pomfrey would then declare that the Headmaster would need to spend the remaining holidays in the Hospital wing.

XXXXX

Molly Weasley was not happy when her vacation with her husband was cancelled and that she was not able to see her second son. But upon seeing her other children returning from school for the holidays her anger soon vanished.

After returning back to The Burrow she instantly grabbed her youngest son and led him to her room. "Well Ron how was school?"

Ron shrugged and said "It was alright."

Molly then looked around her room to see if there was anyone else inside the room other than herself and Ron. When she was sure they were alone she then whispered "So did you make friends with Harry Potter?"

Ron then nervously shook his head and said "No I never had the chance. Harry has been avoiding me especially after Halloween."

Molly's eyes then widened "Does Dumbledore know that you failed?"

Ron then smiled evilly and said "No he doesn't, he thinks that I'm Harry's best friend. In fact…" Ron then pulled out the bag full of galleons and showed it to his mother "He paid me 300 galleons to watch over Harry."

Molly then let out a sigh of relief "Well if Dumbledore thinks that you have done your job then there is no point in angering him with the truth."

"Oh good I thought that you would be mad at me for failing."

"Oh no Ron, you got the money and that's all it matters. We just need to keep Dumbledore from finding out that you have failed and everything will be alright."

"So um, have you told dad yet?"

Molly shook her head "No, your father would never agree to do something like this. The two of us are the only ones who know about this. Your sister and brothers don't know about this so we need to be extra careful from now on."

Ron then groaned "You mean we have to keep this a secret from everyone while tricking Dumbledore at the same time?"

Molly then nodded causing Ron to once again groan in annoyance.

XXXXX

After having dinner Ron was happily tossing his bag of gold into the air while whistling a happy tune. The twins then walked in after hearing Ron's whistling and upon seeing the bag Fred instantly snatched the bag from the air.

Ron then growled and said "Give that back!"

Fred and George then opened the bag and to their surprise found galleons, a lot of galleons. George then asked "Where and how did you get this? There are 300 hundred galleons in here!"

"I'll tell you if you tell me something else in return…"

Fred then asked "What do you want to know?"

"Where and how do I get to the Hogwarts kitchen, I have seen the two of you disappear only to return with food during the Gryffindor VS Slytherin party."

Fred and George then exchanged glances before nodding. George then began telling Ron where the Hogwarts kitchen is located and how to get in.

Ron having already thought of an excuse ahead of time calmly said "I won the money from a bet."

Fred then asked "What bet?"

"You know the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. I betted on Gryffindor and when they won the match I won the bet. Ever since Charlie left Hogwarts, Gryffindor has never won a game against Slytherin so the bet was in favour of Slytherin. I have seen how Harry flew the day he was made a seeker, and so I alone betted on Gryffindor. The result is 300 galleons."

George then said "Is it the end of the world? Little Ronnie-kin's actually did something smart!"

"I don't know George but I'm scared…" Fred said while shivering.

XXXXX

Arthur Weasley came back from work the next morning after having spent 24 hours in the Ministry giving his report as well as having to answer questions due to a crisis that came up about a month ago. He and his wife was planning on visiting their second eldest son Charlie in Romania when the Ministry sent him an emergency owl telling him his vacation was canceled and that he is to return to the Ministry as soon as he can.

"So father what was the problem?" asked Percy.

Arthur's face then turned red in anger "Ask your mother! MOLLY!"

Molly Weasley then came out from the kitchen and asked "Yes dear?"

Arthur then turned towards his children "Go back to your rooms now!"

The Weasley children knew that when their father tells them to go to their rooms then something big must have happened. So with haste they all with the exception for Ron as he is still sleeping, scrambled up to their rooms but each made sure to leave a little opening in the doorway allowing them to listen in on their parents.

Arthur by now was shaking in fury "I don't believe it! My own wife broke the Statute of Secrecy! Do you know what I have been through yesterday! I faced an inquiry because my wife couldn't remember the platform number to board the Express to Hogwarts! My daughter had to scream the number several times for you to remember!"

Molly's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates quickly said "But that was 4 months ago! Why would anything start now?"

Arthur then glared at his wife "So it is true! Tell me Molly just how is it that you can forget a platform number when you and I have been to Hogwarts for seven years! Bill and Charlie have already left Hogwarts, while Fred and George are still attending said school? How many times have we walked through that barrier to bring our kids to school?"

Molly now in tears said "I, I don't know Arthur."

Arthur took in a deep breath to calm himself before saying "Apparently the muggles that were witnesses that day remembered a red haired lady asking her children about the number of a platform. The lady's daughter then repeatedly shouted out Platform 9 and 3/4's for the entire world to hear." Arthur said as he glared at his wife therefore making her flinch "Those muggles thought that it was weird for a family to talk about a platform that did not exist. Some of those muggles have then begun forming cults, some of these cults view Platform 9 and 3/4's as a gateway to another dimension. While some of the other cults think that Platform 9 and 3/4's is a gathering place for aliens! It started out small at first but for some strange reason these cults have expanded at an alarming rate in the past month!"

Molly then wiped some sweat from her face and asked "So what is the Ministry going to do?"

Arthur then sighed and said "I have been assigned to lead a battalion of Ministry officials and we are given orders to wipe the memory of every muggle who has ever heard of Platform 9 and 3/4's. I have also been warned and fined a hefty sum for breaking the Statute of Secrecy…"

Molly then nervously asked "How much?"

Arthur then said "300 galleons."

Molly fainted instantly.

XXXXX

Later that day when Arthur has left for the Ministry, the Weasley house was eerily quite. Even the twins was dead silent, they all knew that the family is in trouble and that they needed to find some way to get that much money in such a short amount of time.

Ginny then began sobbing which drew the attention of everyone "I'm, I'm sorry it's my entire fault!"

Molly then hugged her daughter and asked "For what dear?"

"It was me that shouted out the platform's number and now Daddy is in trouble."

Molly was shocked but she soon figured out that the children must have eavesdropped on their conversation. "No, it isn't dear. Everything will be fine I promise."

Ron confused as he doesn't know what is going on decided to remain silent. His mind then wondered off to the Nimbus 2000 that he will be getting this Christmas. He then went upstairs to grab the bag of gold hoping that his mother would bring him to Diagon Alley so that he can get his new broomstick. He then pulled out a picture of the broomstick and started admiring the photo.

Back down in the living room there was a knock on the door and Molly went to see who it was. Upon opening the door Molly's heart sank as she recognized the person standing before her. He was a Ministry agent that Arthur introduced to her once.

"Hello Nickson."

"Hello Molly I'm sorry for what happened but I am here to collect the fine." Nickson said with a nervous smile.

Molly then sighed "I'm sorry Nickson but we just don't have the… Ron what is that?" Molly questioned when she saw the bag in Ron's hands.

Ron who came back downstairs started toward his mother hoping to ask her if she could bring him to Diagon Alley. "This? Oh it's the money…"

Before Ron could finish the bag was snatched away by his mother and given to the official "Here's 300 galleons."

After when the official counted the amount of gold he then nodded and handed over a parchment indicating that the Weasleys have paid the fine. With a bow he then waved goodbye to Molly and the kids and with a crack he was gone.

Molly feeling quite happy now that the fine was paid then went back towards her kitchen. Fred and George then exchanged glances and with a shrug left a stunned Ron standing alone in the living room.

It would be moments later when a scream of "NOOOOOOOOOO!" echoed throughout the house.

XXXXX

After inspecting what Harry had to wear during the holidays, the Tonks's then took Harry shopping for clothes as what Harry had for clothes made him look ridiculous.

Harry of course was against it but the Tonks's was adamant about it. So after several hours much to Harry's horror, and four bags full of just Harry's new clothes the group then went to Diagon Alley to buy presents. Harry made sure to get a present for everyone of his friends. He was surprised that the stores offered delivery and once all the presents were sent to the correct people, they then made their way back home.

After putting away the new clothes and throwing away all of Dudley's old ones the family along with Harry was once again back in the living room but to Harry's surprise each of the Tonks's look nervous.

"Harry…" Andromeda began "Nymphadora has told us of your situation with the Dursleys and we want to help you deal with them."

Harry noticing that Tonks didn't do anything when her mother called her by her first name instantly knew they were serious but he decided to remain silent.

Andromeda then continued "We have been gathering evidences and searching for witnesses ever since Tonks owled us a letter describing what you told her. With the amount gathered so far we are certain that we have a strong case against the Dursleys."

Harry suspiciously asked "So what are we going to do to the Dursleys?"

"Well we needed to ask for your permission to take action after all they are your relatives…"

Harry then interrupted "I want the Dursleys out of my life and punished for what they did to me."

Ted then spoke up "Alright, now that that is out of the way, we can begin our plan. We are thinking that the best way to deal with the Dursleys is to hand them over to the muggle authorities and let them handle it. Do you find that solution acceptable?"

Harry thought about it for a while before nodding "Yes that is fine."

"But it won't be that simple, because when we read the letter Tonks send us there were a couple of alarming things that you said that seemed unusual."

"Like what?" asked Tonks.

"Well the first thing that came to mind is who left you with the Dursleys? Your parents have never talked to anyone about your muggle relatives. So that led us to the question: who would know about the existence of the Dursleys?"

Harry and Tonks exchanged looks before turning back to face Ted "Then it hit us, there are only two places that have a record of Muggle-borns and their relatives. The two places are the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts which records all magically born babies. From what we know the Ministry does not deal with children. They only deal with adults, magical beasts and creatures and other serious matters. Hogwarts on the other hand is focused entirely on children. When a magical child is born in the UK Hogwarts immediately detects and records the child's birth. When the child is 11 years old Hogwarts will then take the child in and teach them how to control their magic until they leave Hogwarts. It is only when the Statute of Secrecy is breached that the Ministry gets involved with children. So that led us to the conclusion that someone from Hogwarts must have known about the Dursleys and decided to leave you with them after the death of your parents."

Harry then said "Okay so someone left me with the Dursleys but there's nothing wrong with that, after all they are my only living relatives_._"

Andromeda then spoke up "Harry after when your parents died there were a lot of families that were willing to adopt you. But that person went against everyone's wishes and chose to leave you with the Dursleys."

Harry was shocked "What? You mean I didn't have to live with the Dursleys?"

Andromeda sadly nodded and said "Yes, you were the Boy Who Lived. It was thanks to you that the war against You Know Who ended. So of course there would be a lot of grateful people who wanted to adopt you. There are of course others that wanted you just for your fame but to deny even the good families the chance to raise you seems off."

"The point Andromeda is trying to make is: why would this person turn down these chances for your happiness unless this person views the Dursleys as a better choice."

"Then this person might not be sane." Harry said bitterly.

"Okay so we think there is a person that is the cause of Harry's suffering but he or she might not have known about the abuse." Tonks offered.

"That then leads us to another unusual point. Do you remember Harry what happened when you first got to the Leaky Cauldron? Or when you first got on the Hogwarts Express with Tonks? What were the people's reactions towards you?"

"Well the barman recognized Hagrid and then greeted me with open arms. The students just kept staring at me, but I didn't care because Tonks was with me."

"And did Hagrid or Tonks ever tell anyone who you really are?"

"No, now that I think about it… how did those people know what I look like?"

"Exactly, the next point is: how did people recognize a boy who has vanished from the magical world for ten years when the last anyone ever saw of him he was only 1 year old?"

"Maybe they saw your scar?" Tonks offered.

"I doubt it. My messy hairs usually covers up my scar and unless you are really looking for it you wouldn't even see it."

"That question bothered Andromeda and I for a couple of months…"

"Until about six weeks ago I came upon a book that we have never read before while I was in Flourish and Blotts. By some miracle a little child was reading said book and happened to drop it. I then went to pick up the book and to my surprise…" Andromeda said as she got up from the couch and went towards a bookshelf. After grabbing four books she then handed it to Harry and Tonks "Skim through these books and see what you can find…"

Harry and Tonks exchanged confused glances before reading the book titles "**The Adventures of Harry Potter**. **The Adventures of Harry Potter and Friends**. What's going on here?" Harry asked while he gaped at Andromeda.

"**Harry Potter Battles the Snake Lord**. **The Princess and the Boy Who Lived**." Tonks read as her eyes widened before bursting out laughing.

Harry then shot a glare at Tonks "Would you cut it out!"

Andromeda then said "Go on open them."

Harry and Tonks then skimmed through the books and to their surprise there were photos of Harry on some of the pages, photos of Harry at different ages!"

After skimming through the book **The Princess and the Boy Who Lived **and seeing himself from a year ago Harry did not know what to say.

"And that Harry is how people were able to recognize you right away…" Ted said with a frown.

"Do you know what that means?" Andromeda asked.

"What? You mean other than the fact that others have been using his name to make money?" Tonks said with venom.

"Yes there's that but more importantly, there is someone who knew where the Dursleys lived and thus was able to take all these pictures of Harry growing up. This means that this person knew of the abuse Harry received from the Dursleys and chose not to do anything about it." Ted said bitterly.

Harry's eyes widened in horror "What?"

Tonks then narrowed her eyes "So by telling us all this, it means that you found the guy?"

Andromeda nodded and said "Yes about a month ago, we found a person by the name of Mundungus Fletcher selling a picture of Harry and with some _convincing_ from our _friends_ he told us everything."

Ted with a grim expression said "He was hired about ten years ago by the Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore to take photos of Harry. He had told Dumbledore of Harry's living conditions and what the Dursleys were doing to Harry but Dumbledore chose to ignore it. He said Dumbledore never told him the reason but Fletcher soon found out something else when he noticed some Harry Potter books appearing on the market and was selling like crazy. After picking up a book and scanning it he realised just where all the photos were going to."

Tonks eyes widened "No, it can't be Professor Dumbledore would never do something like that… he wouldn't..."

Ted then said with a sigh "I'm sorry, I know it's hard to believe but it's all true. Dumbledore was the one to give Harry to the Dursleys. He watched as the Dursleys abused Harry and did nothing about it. He then used Harry to make himself rich. Dumbledore is not the man I thought I knew…"

Tonks now shaking her head "But, but how do you know for sure that it was Dumbledore that gave Harry to the Dursleys?"

Andromeda then spoke up "Because I went to visit someone who I thought I would never see again. Sirius Bl… my cousin told me that it was Hagrid who had Harry last on the day James and Lily died. Hagrid told him that Dumbledore will take care of Harry and now we know how… by giving Harry to the Dursleys."

"But, we can't trust Sirius Bl… we can't trust him! He…" Tonks said before she was stopped by a cry.

Harry was crying, endless tears flowing down his face. All these years of his suffering was caused by the schools Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore gave him away to the Dursleys when they don't want him and others did. Dumbledore watched as he was abused and did nothing. Dumbledore used his name, parent's death and his suffering to make money! "Why? Why did he do this to me? What did I do to deserve all of this? What would make him do something like this to a baby? Why? Why?" Harry asked as he cried.

Andromeda immediately rushed to his side and pulled him into a hug, while comforting the crying 11 year old boy.

Tonks upon seeing Harry cry began having tears in her eyes as well. All thoughts of Sirius Black was gone in her head, instead it was replaced with sadness and anger at Dumbledore. The great Albus Dumbledore hurting her first real friend to this degree, he was responsible for Harry's pain and Tonks swore that Dumbledore will pay for what he did to Harry! After making this resolution Tonks then went towards Harry and her mother and joined them in the hug.

Ted watched as he wiped some tears from his own eyes. In his mind he promised that he would do everything he could to help Harry.

After several minutes have gone by, Harry then broke from the hug and wiped his eyes. He then looked at Andromeda and Ted with clenched fists and said "I want the Dursleys out of my life. I want Dumbledore to pay for what he did to me. Will you help me?"

Andromeda once again pulled Harry into a hug and with a smile managed to choke out "Yes, yes of course we will help you."

Harry then smiled and returned the hug, it was the first time he felt safe in an adults embrace. The feeling soon made him sleepy and not long later Andromeda found herself having a sleeping 11 year old boy in her arms. With a sigh and a smile Andromeda then looked towards her husband and with a nod, Ted then picked Harry up and carried him back towards Harry's room.

XXXXX

Harry awoke the next day still feeling tired from the amount of information thrown at him yesterday. The revelation of what Dumbledore did to him made him sick and angry but he knows that he is no longer alone and that he now has friends that will help him deal with Dumbledore.

After cleaning himself up he then went downstairs for breakfast. The Tonks's all smiled at him when he entered and in response he returns the kindness with a smile of his own.

After breakfast the subject is once again brought up by Ted "Andromeda and I have discussed what our plans are and what our problems are." Taking a deep breath he then continued "The Dursleys we can deal with fine but what worries us is that Dumbledore might back them up and even defend them…"

This caused a simultaneous growl from both Harry and Tonks.

"Dumbledore is just too powerful politically for us to take down. He is the Headmaster of Hogwarts, which is one of the most prestigious magical school in Europe. He is the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards therefore giving him connections all over the world. But most importantly he is the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot which basically gives him control of what goes on during a trial. We simply cannot win against him if we attack him head on."

Andromeda nodded "That's why we will use Slytherin's approach and attack him when his guard is down. We will attack him in the shadows and not once allowing him to know just who it is that is attacking him."

Tonks seeing Harry's confused face chuckled and said "Mum's a Slytherin…" This caused Harry's eyes to widen "Harry, you must know that not all Slytherin's are bad and that not all Gryffindor's are good. The perfect examples are mum and Dumbledore."

Harry then nodded and gave Andromeda an apologetic look therefore making Andromeda smile.

"The two of you will be going back to Hogwarts and act like you still don't know what Dumbledore has done. Ted and I will be gathering more evidences against Dumbledore. We will attack when summer arrives and deal as much damage to his reputation as possible making the Ministry of Magic isolate themselves from him. The Minister for Magic Fudge is the kind of person that will go with whoever that makes him look good while abandon anyone who may make him look bad. We may not be able to take down Dumbledore for good but making a dent in his perfect reputation will hurt him. This will then make it impossible for him to defend the Dursleys therefore allowing the muggle authorities to do their job."

"But how can we damage his reputation? I mean with him being so famous and powerful whether in magic or politics, I just can't fathom it." Tonks said as she shook her head.

Andromeda then smiled and said "Nymphadora…"

"Mum!" Tonks growled.

Andromeda then shook her head but continued on "You are forgetting just who it is that Dumbledore has wronged."

Tonks eyes then widened causing Andromeda's grin to spread even wider "That's right, Dumbledore has wronged the one person who is just as if not more famous than he is. What is ironic is that Dumbledore helped boost Harry's fame with all those books on Harry. There probably isn't a single magical child out there who hasn't heard of the Boy Who Lived. Harry here will be the one to unleash the evidences against Dumbledore; he will be the one making interviews and once the news leaks out on what Dumbledore did to the Boy Who Lived. Well not even Dumbledore will be able to escape without a scratch. Oh Dumbledore will recover but he won't be viewed as Mr. Perfect anymore."

"But mum, I thought that we will be attacking in the shadows…"

"Oh let me rephrase my earlier statement. The ones in the shadows will be us but Harry on the other hand needs to be in the open or else nobody will care."

"But Mrs. Tonks I don't like the attention and my fame…"

"Sorry Harry but this is the only way to deal with Dumbledore and the Dursleys. Besides since you are a victim the muggle authorities will be asking you to appear on court, that's why you can't stay quite."

Harry sighed and nodded he really didn't want anymore attention but if using his fame will free him from the Dursleys and hurt Dumbledore, he's all for it.

"With us in the shadows Dumbledore will be pulling his hair out trying to find out who it is that is helping Harry. A confused and in the dark Dumbledore is a good Dumbledore."

Harry and Tonks then nodded indicating their roles in the plan.

Ted then said "Harry you have until summer to prepare for this battle, and it won't be easy."

Harry nodded and said "Yes sir."

Andromeda then smiled and said "Now that business has been taken care of we can now truly enjoy the holidays. After all it's Christmas!"

"Thank you Mr. Tonks, thank you Mrs. Tonks. You don't know how much I appreciate all of your help." Harry said as tears began forming in his eyes.

Andromeda then pulled him into a hug and said "Nonsense, we are glad to be of help."

AN: Sigh I tried to get this chapter out on Christmas but things just kept happening therefore this chapter can be considered super late.


End file.
